Ranger Tales: Almia Arc!
by Loveon
Summary: Hanging on to the memory of when a Pokémon Ranger saved her, a girl travels alone to Almia to become a Pokémon Ranger. Being a Pokémon Ranger, she soon finds out, is a lot harder than it looks.
1. Prologue: My Goal

Author's Notes: So, so! I recently found my Shadows of Almia game, and unfortunately, all the data on it was gone. D: Well, now I'm playing through it again and stuff... you know?

So, maybe some of you noticed that I deleted the first "Ranger Tales" story. Well, in my opinion, it kinda sucked. So I started rewriting it as I played through Shadows of Almia. And, uh... It's much different from before. Yup, yup. :|

This is the only chapter that'll be narrated in first person view.

_EDIT: _As of February 14, 2012, this has been rewritten. Specifically, Raven's age when she met the Ranger was changed.

* * *

Prologue

The first time I saw a Pokémon Ranger, I was about nine or ten years old. Sure, I'd seen them on T.V. before, but this was the first time I'd seen one up close.

I'd been living in the Sinnoh region at the time, but there weren't too many Rangers there. I've heard they aren't quite the same kind of Rangers as the ones I seen on T.V., but it doesn't matter.

My mom and I were taking a walk one day, off to the store, when we were attack by a couple of wild Pokémon. My mom had assumed that she wouldn't need to take her Pokémon with her then, and I was too young to have one, so we were kind of stuck.

But then, a white light shot out from somewhere, and it started circling around the Pokémon. The light tightened around them, and they instantly calmed down, acting like they hadn't been so angered a moment ago.

An older boy had come up to us then, asked us if we were okay, and said he'd accompany us to wherever we were going, just in case we were attacked again.

He was a Pokémon Ranger.

Sadly, I can't seem to remember the name of the Ranger, or what he looked like, either. In fact, was the Ranger even a man at all? Was it a woman who saved us?

…Anyway.

Recently, I learned about a region far away that had a school that would train people to become Pokémon Rangers, among other things. I think mechanics and operators were the other things.

And so, I was like, "Oh, yeah, I totally wanna be a Pokémon Ranger!"

And my mom was like, "Oh, hell no."

And my dad was like, "I think it's a great learning experience!"

My parents started arguing then, or at least I think my mom was arguing. My dad didn't seem to notice her anger. Eventually, they settled on the option that it would be a good experience for me. So they bought me a boat ticket to send me off to the Almia region so I could become a Pokémon Ranger.

But they didn't come along with me. So now, I'm alone in the Almia region, trying to become a Pokémon Ranger.

I'm kind of already regretting my decision.


	2. Chapter 1: The Ranger School I

Author's Notes: ...This is pretty much like the games. Even the lines. :| I'm so unoriginal.

Kaplan = Best Pokemon character. Ever.

UPDATE: Rewrote the chapter slightly. Derp.

UPDATEUPDATE: Rewrote it again. Yaaay. I lost my Shadows of Almia game again. Shit.

* * *

Chapter One

"Okay… Capture on!"

A top flew out at the small, yellow mouse Pokémon with rosy red cheeks. Its long ears twitched for a moment, and it looked around in confusion as the disc began spinning around it in circles. It spun faster and faster around it, a white trail of light following behind the top. The line then tightened around the mouse Pokémon, and light washed over the Pokémon for a moment and disappeared, leaving it where it was.

Someone started clapping. "Good going! That was an impressive capture!"

A small girl sighed as the mouse ran past her, heading over to a man standing there, wearing a green cap and overalls. The girl herself was wearing a short, green jacket, blue shorts, a blue shirt, a yellow tie, and knee-high boots.

"Heheheh…"

The girl turned around to stare at the man with a blank look on her face.

"My name, it is Kaplan. You are now a member of our secret army, the inscrutable Team School. As proof of your membership, you are conferred the School Styler you just used. Together, we shall rule the world…"

Kaplan began laughing evilly then, throwing his head up towards the roof, his arms spread wide, laughing and laughing…

The girl shrugged and started laughing evilly alongside him.

"Oh, please, Mr. Kaplan!"

The girl stopped laughing, turning around to look over at the entrance of the small building they stood in. Standing there was a red-haired woman who wore a white skirt and some shade of green shirt. Kaplan had also quit laughing, opting to start whistling instead, acting like he hadn't just been laughing like that.

"Please don't tease my student with a silly performance like that," the woman said.

"Ahahaha, sorry, sorry. The timing was just too perfect to miss. Ahem…" Kaplan coughed into his hand to probably get the girl's attention again. "Congratulations! You've passed the Ranger School's entrance exam with flying colors! That really was an impressive capture."

The woman looked down at the girl, a smile on her face. "Congratulations! You've been accepted," she said, as if the girl hadn't quite heard what Kaplan just said. "Starting today, you're officially a student of the Ranger School. I'm Ms. April. I'm your class's teacher. I'm very pleased to meet you."

Ms. April straightened up and started walking towards the door. "Your classmates are waiting for you. I'll show you to our class."

As the girl hurried after Ms. April, Kaplan started waving at her and shouted, "Enjoy your school life!"

They left the small building that was sitting off to the side of the actual school building. The school itself was tall, with multiple floors and windows everywhere. As the two of them approached the school, a bell started chiming, almost as if on cue.

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting, class," Ms. April said as she walked into the classroom, coming to a stop behind a podium at the front of the room. Desks were lined up neatly in front of her, kids sitting at them, dressed in green and blue uniforms. "And good morning, everyone!"

"Good morning!" they all answered back, some not as enthusiastically as the others.

"And as I mentioned yesterday, we have a new member for our class, who's here today!"

At this, the students all began talking with each other, trying to figure out what the new student's gender was, how old they were, what they looked like, what pants size they wore…

"Okay, that's enough!" Ms. April interrupted their chatter. "You can see for yourself… Here's our latest classmate! Come on in!"

Everyone turned in their seats to stare at the door, which rattled open as the student quickly stepped inside. The girl who came in looked pretty young, at least eleven or twelve, and her messy, black hair stuck out in random directions, looking like she hadn't brushed it that morning. She ignored the stares of her classmates as she hurried down the aisle that led to the podium.

"Our new friend came alone to our Almia region to become a Pokémon Ranger," she said. She looked down at the girl. "Oh, yes, you should introduce yourself to our class rather than me. Let's start with your name."

Without a single hint of hesitation, the girl replied, "John Smith."

"Let's be serious now."

The girl sighed. "Fine. Raven. That's my name."

"Okay, our new friend is named Raven. Let's make her feel welcome, everyone! Also," she said and turned back to Raven. "I understand that she scored quite well on our entrance exam." Ms. April paused to stare at one of the students, who had stopped midway of putting his feet up on the desk. "What is it, Keith? Why the big grin?"

"You must've caught a cold draft," Raven mumbled.

Ms. April shook her head. "Anyways, we'd been get your seated somewhere, Raven. You can have the seat there, next to Keith."

She gestured towards an empty desk next to the boy who'd been grinning and trying to put his feet on the desk. Raven gave a slight shrug and walked over to the seat, getting glared at by the boy named Keith. Because he'd probably heard the cold draft comment.

"Okay, that'll do. That's it for treating you like a new transfer student. From now on, you're all my students, people whom I can take pride in teaching." Ms. April clapped her hands together. "Let's do it, everyone… Let's not fail your dreams of becoming Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics!"

"YEAAAHHH!" everyone shouted in response.

"Why're the words operators, rangers, and mechanics capitalized?" Raven muttered, but sadly, no one heard her.

"Okay, I'll change the class schedule specially for today. This will be a free-study class." This seemed to elate the class. Ms. April had gone over to Raven's desk and started talking to her again.

"But before I go, Raven, I need to explain something to you. It's about the School Styler you were provided with before the entrance exam. It's a simplified version of a Ranger's official Capture Styler. Now, put simply, a Styler is a device used for befriending and capturing Pokémon. By drawing loop around Pokémon, it conveys the Ranger's feeling of friendship to the Pokémon. When the Ranger's friendship is fully conveyed, the Pokémon is captured."

Raven was only partially listening to her explanation, but made sure to look like she was listening. Ms. April turned to look at the rest of the students. "Everyone, you should all be paying attention to this as a review."

She turned back to Raven. "Touch the button with a blue circle at the bottom right of the Styler's screen to open up the menu."

Raven fumbled around to get her Styler and opened it up, pressing the button on the screen as instructed. Sure enough, a menu of sorts popped up onto the screen, displaying information about the Styler and, for some reason, herself.

"The upper screen shows your status and your Styler Level," Ms. April said, pointing at the part of the Styler that Raven had opened up to get to the bottom screen. "On the lower screen, the Styler menu is displayed. The Styler menu has many convenient features that you can access. You should try them out and see for yourself."

Keith started to yawn, which prompted Ms. April to glare at him. "Oh, please, Keith. Don't yawn with your mouth wide open like that."

"Yeah, you'll let the flies in," Raven mumbled. Keith seemed to hear her, but Ms. April didn't, having turned back to her to resume her explanation on the cosmic universe of a Capture Styler.

"Okay, next, the button at the bottom left of the Styler. That's the change screen button for switching what's shown on the screen when you don't have the menu open. You can switch between Map Mode and Friend Pokémon mode. They're both convenient, so you should set the mode to whichever one you use most.

"Oh, yes, there's something else quite important. As a student of the Ranger School, you may have up to three Pokémon with you. If you capture a fourth Pokémon, you'll have to release one of them. By release, I mean you'll have to let it go. It's good-bye to that Pokémon."

"Does a Pokémon get released… if I eat it?"

"If there's anything you don't understand, look it up in your glossary," Ms. April concluded, not paying attention to Raven's remark about eating a Pokémon to release it. Now that Raven was staring at her Styler like it was an unknown flying object, Ms. April laughed a bit.

"Actually, that turned into quite a lesson. Are you a little overwhelmed? Really, you should just try things out and see how they work for yourself. After all, nothing beats experience. It's all about trying."

"News to me."

Ms. April looked back at the students who sat on the other side of her. "Rhythmi, can I get you to show Raven around the school, please?"

A girl with curly, almost puffy, blonde head nodded. "I sure will!"

"In that case, I'll be in the staff room," Ms. April said. She started walking out of the classroom and added, "I'll leave it to you!"

As soon as their teacher was gone, everyone got out of their seats to surround Raven.

"Hey, new kid, I forgot your name, but how long did it take you to catch that Pikachu?" Keith asked and started laughing. "Like, an hour?"

"No," Raven answered with a glare, "but that's how long it'll take you to figure out how to spell Pikachu. Also, there's a couple of other things I'd like to say to you, but they would sadly not be appropriate for a T rating."

Raven felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over to see the girl named Rhythmi standing there. "Keith's just a show-off," she said. "You're better off ignoring him." Rhythmi pointed at herself. "Instead, you should be paying attention to _me_. I'm not here to become a Ranger. I want to be an Operator instead. So, when Keith becomes a Ranger, I can order him around like my servant!"

"That sounds good to me," Raven said, nodding in agreement. "Let me order him around, too."

"All right, let me take you on a tour of the Ranger School now, 'kay?" Rhythmi waved her hands at their classroom. "Let's start with our own classroom. You've already met our teacher, Ms. April. She's really nice, but if you make her mad… Watch out."

A look of understanding crossed Raven's face. She nodded. "So, just like my mom, you mean?"

"Er, sure. There's another class next to us. The teacher there is Mr. Kincaid. He's very uptight and strict. 'No running in the hallway!' is, like, his pet saying." The class nodded in agreement at this. "Okay, let's get a move on! We'll explore the school building!"

Raven nodded eagerly, so Rhythmi grabbed Raven's hand and pulled her up from her seat. And the two of them hurried out of the classroom, off to explore the school building…


	3. Chapter 2: The Ranger School II

Author's Notes: Re-re-re-rewrite!

* * *

Chapter Two

"So, where are you from?"

"I'm… from the Sinnoh region…"

"Really? I've never been there… I heard that it doesn't have Pokémon Rangers like the ones here, right?"

"Yeah… It had Pokémon Trainers, but not Pokémon Rangers…"

"Huh. Is that so? So, being here must be different, huh? Oh, yeah, why'd you come here anyways?"

"Well… when I was younger, my mom and I were saved by a Pokémon Ranger so…"

"Oh, I see! You wanted to become a Pokémon Ranger after that, huh? Oh, hey, we're at the other classroom now."

Rhythmi stopped in front of a door and, after knocking, opened up the door and walked inside. "Sorry to disturb you! I'm taking our new classmate on a tour of the school!"

Rhythmi lowered her voice to talk to Raven, saying, "This is the other class. The man looking this way is Mr. Kincaid. He gets his hair to go that way with a ton of hair spray. He's a little too uptight, I think. I'm not a big fan."

Raven nodded quickly and the two hurried out of the room. Rhythmi led the way to another room of the school, Raven following her and looking around at the place. The floor and walls were all wooden, she noticed. Not a good place to run around barefoot. Lots of splinters, probably.

"This is the library," Rhythmi said as they walked into another room. Sure enough, there were bookshelves lined up, and there were tables by the window, sunlight streaming in through them. "Also known as Keith's nap room."

She then pointed to one corner of the library, where a blonde boy stood, seeming to be staring off in space. "That boy in the back with a haircut like a mushroom is Isaac. He's awesomely smart. You can usually find him right here in the library. Sometimes, he goes off somewhere, though."

At that, Rhythmi led her out of that room, and the two hurried down a hallway, passing by a flight of stairs, one flight going upstairs, and the other going down. Rhythmi stopped in front of another door, knocking before walking in.

"This is the staff room," she explained. Sure enough, Ms. April sat at a desk, other desks all around the room, a lot of them scattered with papers and stuff. "But usually, only our principal is here. Our principal is Mr. Lamont. His eyes are always twinkling happily behind his glasses. I like him pretty well."

Raven was looking at Rhythmi like she was an alien. No, not because her name was Rhythmi. It was probably because she just said that the principal's eyes are also twinkling happily behind his… glasses.

Rule 1 of the Almia region: don't make eye contact with the principal of the Ranger School. Just don't do it.

After that, Rhythmi led Raven upstairs, were the dorm rooms were. There was a room for the girls and a room for the boys. A woman was there, cleaning things up. Her name was Janice. Or something like that.

As they headed downstairs, the bell began ringing loudly. "Oh, there goes the bell. We can go outside now."

"…Our prison sentence is over now?" Raven asked.

Rhythmi laughed. "Yeah, I guess so!"

"…I wasn't joking at all."

Rhythmi shrugged and, grabbing a hold of Raven's hand, hurried towards the school's entrance, running out in the school yard.

"Bidododo!"

"…Okay, what the hell was that?" Raven asked.

"Bidoooo!"

At that, she was promptly tackled in the back by a brown, beaver-like Pokémon. Several others of the same Pokémon followed after it, all of them coming from inside the school building, and began running around the school yard. And trampling over Raven, while they were at it.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" Janice hurried out of the building, acting like a chicken with its head cut off. "What to do… what to do…"

"What's wrong, Janice?" Rhythmi asked, looking around at all the Pokémon running around like… Pokémon.

"I accidentally stepped on the leader Bidoof's tail! Now they're all running around!… Please catch them for me!"

"Heheh… This looks like a perfect opportunity!"

Janice looked behind herself to see Keith walking towards her. Two kids followed behind him, looking at the Bidoof with a worried expression.

"Hey, new kid, I forgot your name, but let's have a challenge!"

After a moment, Raven realized that he was talking to her. "…Oh! Right! I accept that challenge!"

"Whatever, you two!" Rhythmi shouted and pointed at the Bidoof. "Catch the Bidoof!"

"Hey, wait, count me in with that challenge too!" one of the kids standing behind Keith, a boy, said. Raven had bothered to note his appearance, but she stood up, ignoring the pain of being trampled over by Bidoof.

"Whatever!"

"Okay, whoever catches the most wins, got it?" Keith asked. "Okay… on your marks, get set, go!"

The three charged off across the school yard to catch the Bidoof. There were nine Bidoof running around, and within a minute or so, all of them were caught.

The results, you ask?

Keith captured five.

The other boy caught three.

And Raven caught one.

…

"Let's see… I caught, uh… five!" Keith said and began cheering. "I win! Hajime comes in second place, and the other kid comes in 99th place!"

"Keith, do me a favor and go f-"

A Bidoof did some timely interrupting as it jumped onto her head and bounced off to join the line of Bidoof in front of Janice.

"Good job, you three!" Janice said happily, looking at each of her Bidoof happily. "Leader Bidoof, I'm so sorry for treading on your tail. I'll give you some extra tasty treats as my apologies."

"Bidobido!"

And with that, Janice walked off somewhere, the Bidoof Gang following after her happily.

"Well, Hajime, to rate your captures, I'd say about… hmm… 60 percent? And the other kid, I'd say… like, 1 percent?" Keith said, nodding to himself.

"Keith? Please, just go-"

And yet again, Raven's comment was interrupted by someone else. It was Rhythmi this time, though.

"Oh, Raven, we haven't introduced you to these two yet," she said. She pointed to the boy, who had brown hair, a piece of which stuck up in the air. The girl had lighter brown hair, pulled up into two pigtails. Her bangs fell down over her face, covering up a bit of her eyes. It was a wonder how she could even see. "The boy is Hajime, and the girl is his twin, Hitomi. They're both in our class, in case you didn't notice."

The two nodded at Raven in acknowledgement. And with that, the school bell began chiming, and the group hurried off back into the school…


	4. Chapter 3: Graduation

Author's Notes: REWWWRITTEEEE. *achoo*

Also, the entire chapter title couldn't fit in the box thing, but it should really be something more like "The Ranger School III / Graduation."

* * *

Chapter Three

"Say, do you write to your parents?"

"Hm? No…"

"Really? I do. Hitomi over here doesn't need to write to her parents, 'cause they don't live too far from here."

It was nighttime, and the three girls sat together on the bottom bunk of one of many bunk-beds in the room for the girls. Rhythmi had out a piece of pink paper, which she was currently writing on. Raven sat next to her, watching her carefully as if she'd never seen anyone write a letter before. Hitomi sat on Rhythmi's other side, reading a book.

"…Say," Rhythmi began and put down the paper she was writing on. "Wanna sneak out for a bit?"

"Sure. What about Hitomi?"

"Oh, she's reading right now. It's impossible to snap her out of her trance while she's reading."

"…Oh. Okay."

And with that, Raven and Rhythmi hurried out of the room and out into the hall. Other kids were sitting around at the tables in the hall.

"Heheh…"

Raven looked around to see that, much to her dismay, Keith was there, making "heheh" sounds.

"Ugh, it's you. What do you want?"

"…Sorry to break it to you, new kid, but tonight, you have to go through our test of courage!"

"What? Are you serious?"

"That's right!"

Raven made a face like she smelt something really bad. "What? I don't need no test of courage."

"Sure you do! We've gotta prepare you to be a Pokémon Ranger! You have to be courageous enough!"

"I'm already courageous enough! Every night, when I was seven, my dad would hide under my bed and scare the crap out of me! Every single night! And eventually, I didn't jump at all when he did it!"

"…Er…"

"And then he started hiding in the closet every night! He put scary masks on the bathroom toilet so that whenever I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I'd run into it!"

"…There's something really wrong about that."

"I know! Eventually, my mom made him stop. That was about when I was eleven."

"Wait, eleven? Hold old _are_ you?"

"It doesn't matter! Now, what's this test of courage?"

"Oh… right…" Keith coughed a couple of times, and then stated, "We've hidden our School Stylers around the school! Your job is to get the Stylers, and then go down to the basement and placed them in front of the entrance of Mr. Kincaid's lab!"

"What, is that it? You seriously need to get some better ideas."

Keith was at a loss for words from Raven's criticism. "W-well… just do it! I'll go with you so you won't get scared!"

"I don't need your stinkin' help. I'll go alone."

And, sure enough, Raven went through the school alone to gather the Stylers.

…And one could hear her screams throughout the night.

* * *

It was finally the day. Graduation day. Students hurried around to talk to their classmates, most of them saying things like "I hope we get stationed to the same place!"

After students graduate, they are assigned to a Ranger Base around the world. Some get stationed to Fiore, some stay in Almia. Some get stationed to even farther away areas as well.

And, yet, the only student not sharing everyone's excitement would be Raven. Why, you may wonder?

…Well, she hadn't been doing too well in her classes, and she was constantly yelled at by Mr. Kincaid, who'd seemed to dislike her very much. Sure, she was happy about graduating, but at the same time, she felt exhausted about it.

"I wonder where I'll get stationed at!" Rhythmi said excitedly. "I hope I'll get stationed at the Ranger Union, so I can see that handsome Ranger named Sven!"

"Hm," was Raven's reply.

"I don't really mind where I get stationed…" Hitomi said quietly. "…I do hope that they have someone dumber than me, though."

…And Hitomi insulted herself without hesitation. She was particularly stupid, but she was a bit of a ditz, and a little weird as well…

"Hm," was Raven's reply.

"I hope I get sent somewhere where there're lots of Top Rangers who can be in awe at my totally mad skillz!" Keith said proudly. "What about you, new kid?"

"Hm," was New Kid's reply.

Just then, Ms. April walked into their classroom and said, "Alright, everyone! Please come out here and line up in alphabetical order! We'll start the ceremony once everyone's lined up."

"Okayyyy!~"

At that, all the students hurried out of the room and, after some mild confusion because some of them didn't know that R comes after K (a.k.a. Raven trying to get in line before Keith.), they were all ready.

Principal Lamont stood at a podium set up in front of the stairs going upstairs and downstairs, his toupee looking like it'd start flying away at any moment. Flowers were set up everywhere, and green banners hung everywhere. There were many fold up chairs, enough for the teachers and students, and everyone sat in them.

"We're about to begin the Ranger School's 27th graduation ceremony," Mr. Kincaid announced, instead of, say, the principal. "Everyone, please rise for Principal Lamont's message."

As told, all the students stood up from their chairs, and Principal Lamont began to talk.

"Congratulations, graduates! I am truly delighted that I can be here to greet this day with all of you," Principal Lamont began. "Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics. Though these paths may take you in different directions, what I hope for all of you is but the same. Don't worry, I'm not going to say something impossibly difficult or challenging…

"Please don't forget to smile.' That is all I wish of you. With these simple words, I wish you the very best of luck in all your endeavors." At that, Principal Lamont bowed slightly and stepped back.

Raven sneezed and Keith giggled like a schoolgirl.

"Thank you, Principal Lamont," Mr. Kincaid said. "Next, let me call upon this graduating class's valedictorian. That would be our best student, Isaac."

A blonde haired boy stepped forward, and Raven recognized him slightly… And then she forgot who he was. Regardless, Isaac walked forward to where the principal stood. He stopped in front of him, and then turned around to face everyone else.

"Today, we leave the shelter of this place of learning and nurturing. It is a giant step for us in our pursuits of our long-held dreams.

"To the teachers who inspired us… To Janice, who was mother to us all… To all the Pokémon that loved us… And to all the books of the library…! We will never forget. Thank you so very, very much from all of us!"

And with that, Isaac walked back to stand at his previous spot in the line. Raven sneezed again and Keith managed to hide his randomly placed laughter.

"Isaac, thank you for those most moving words," Mr. Kincaid said and began to wipe his eyes as if tears were there. There weren't any tears at all. "Next, the conferring of the graduation certificates."

Ms. April began talking at that point… "I would like to call upon one student as the representative of the graduating class. Hajime, step forward, please."

Hajime stepped forward to take a place in front of the principal. Raven and Keith were both clapping loudly, although no one else was. They shouted and screamed and clapped like toy monkeys. Those two simply don't understand the word "timing."

"Hajime. As representative of the graduating class, I confer you this certificate."

Hajime bowed slightly as he received the certificate from Principal Lamont. Raven and Keith were still screaming his name and whistling and clapping… And other students looked at them in annoyance.

"BOOYAAHHH, GO HAJIME!"

"HELL YEAH, THAT'S MY BOY! WOOHOO!"

"Keith, I didn't know you swung that way…"

"Huh?"

"Thank you, Principal Lamont," Hajime said. He turned around and walked back to take his place back in line, giving the peace sign in the direction of Keith and Raven. This sign went unnoticed, unfortunately, because they were loudly whispering at each other angrily.

"And now, we will hand out the rest of the graduation certificates. When your name is called, please come up to receive your certificate."

One by one, everyone was called to come up and receive their certificate. They'd walk up, get their certificate, thank the principal, and then head back to where they'd been sitting at. And with each name called, it came closer and closer to Raven's turn…

"Raven."

Raven excitedly stepped forward, being careful not to trip over her feet. She began walking up to where the principal was, when Mr. Kincaid announced…

"You failed."

"…Huh?" She abruptly stopped.

The school became deathly quiet at that. If one listened quietly, they could hear the Kricketot's chirping… And then Hitomi sneezed, and quietly apologized.

Raven looked at all the teachers, who were refusing to make eye contact with her. She looked back at all her classmates, who wore various expressions. She looked back at Principal Lamont, whose eyes no longer twinkled happily behind his glasses.

…Raven fainted on the spot.


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome to Vien Base!

Chapter Four

"So, this is the place, huh?"

Raven stood in front of a Ranger Base, looking up at it in wonder. She still wore her school uniform, however. The building was only one story by the looks of it, and it had blue, automatic opening doors.

After she had failed at the school, she tried again and again to graduate, which meant she had to take the classes all over again. After failing another time, it was on her third time going through that she finally did it.

She finally, actually, graduated.

And now she was assigned to Vientown's Ranger Base.

"Alright, here's goes nothing…!"

Raven walked in through the automatic doors and shouted, "Hello, I'm the new Ranger!"

…No one answered. In fact, it didn't seem like anyone was there. It was empty, and quiet…

"…Hello?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" a woman's voice called out. From behind a counter in the room, a woman stood up, laughing slightly. "I had to duck down to get something. You must be Raven, the new Ranger assigned here, right?"

"Yes! That's right!"

"Well, I'm sure you've noticed, but it's very quiet here," the woman continued. "You know why?… Because all the Rangers are out on a super important mission."

"Whoa, super important? What is it?"

"Well, a Bidoof was… Oh, I can't bring myself to say it!" she cried and hid her face in her hands, shaking her head. Then she looked up from her hands, all signs of getting emotional about a Bidoof gone. "But the leader left a letter for you! Let me read it to you…"

The woman coughed in her hands as she took out a letter and began reading it aloud…

"Dear new Ranger,

"I've left an extremely important parcel with our Operator. Collect it from her, and bring it to Breeze Hill, which is west of Vientown.

"…And that's the end of the letter," she finished. "I have the extremely important parcel right here for you. Please don't tip it on its side. And never, ever flip it upside down."

"…Is it a bomb?"

The woman reached under the counter and handed her a box-thing wrapped in a plaid… blanket? It felt soft…

"Maybe it is," she answered. "Please be very careful with it!"

"Okay…"

Picking it up very carefully, Raven left the Ranger Base with the Extremely Important Parcel. Yes, it's so important that it needs to be capitalized. Then, she swung her arms up, tossing the Extremely Important Parcel up in the air. The woman shouted for her to be careful, and then she realized what she'd just done, and tried to be as careful as she could with it.

"So… I head west of Vientown… Wait, which direction is west…?"

Raven finally spotted a path on the west side of Vientown and hurried towards it, swinging the Extremely Important Parcel again and completely forgetting about the part where she wasn't supposed to tip it over.

Following the path, she went down a flight of stairs that lead out onto the beach. She stopped to look at the blue ocean, its waves rising up and down the shore… The white sand was warm… and the temperature was hot, because it was summer.

"Oh, wait, I forgot! Package, package, don't forget the package.~" Raven sang a song about a package, walking down the beach until she spotted another flight of stairs. She skipped up them, flinging around the Extremely Important Parcel…

After going up yet another flight of stairs, she came out onto a clearing. Several Pokémon Rangers stood there, but they didn't seem to be doing any kind of critical mission or, for that matter, anything involving a Bidoof.

She took in a deep breath and shouted, "Hello everyone! It's a pleasure to meet you! I swear that my hair is all natural!"

At that, they all finally noticed her. One of them, a burly Ranger with tan skin, walked over to her, a grin on his face. Raven made a mental note that his Ranger outfit must've been custom made, because his outfit was much bigger than the other Rangers there. Who all wore short red jackets over black and white shirts and black pants.

"Hey there! It's nice to meet you, too! And, uh, no one was really wondering whether or not your hair was all natural. Nice to know that, though." With that, he held out his hands, and said, "Alright, hand over the package… But be gentle with it. One careless shake and it's ka-plow."

"…Ah, yeah, right!" Raven laughed. She just remember all the shaking she'd done with the package… Whoops. Not like she'd ever mention that. They'd find it out on their own.

She carefully gave the package to the man, and then he looked back at all of the other Rangers; two of who Raven recognized as Hitomi and Hajime.

"All right, people! Gather round, lunch's here!"

Raven stood there dumbfounded as the man unwrapped the plaid covering and spread it out on the ground. Underneath the blanket was a wicker basket, and he opened it up and began taking out various food items.

"…Huh?"

"Come on, sit down, have some food!"

Well, Raven wasn't one to give up the offer of free food, so she simply shrugged and sat down with the group of Rangers. She took notice of each of them carefully…

Aside from the man, Hajime, and Hitomi, there was a tall guy with a brown afro, a girl who was a bit older than her with black hair, and another girl wearing a pair of goggles, her hair falling over it in all directions. She was the only one (aside from Raven,) not wearing the Ranger uniform.

They sat there, all eating their lunch, which consisted of various food items. This group of people, Raven included, were very noisy eaters, and someone was snorting as they ate their food.

"…Um, so…" Raven said, rubbing her face on her sleeve because she was a lady. "…Who're you guys?"

"A little late to be asking that, huh?" the big guy said and laughed. "I'm Barlow. I'm the leader of the Vien Base."

"My name's Crawford," the afro guy said.

"I'm Luana!" the black-haired girl said.

"I'm Elaine," the last girl said.

"Well, you already know us!" Hajime commented, nodding to no one in particular. "Yep, yep…"

"…I do?"

"Ahah, that's funny!"

"What's funny?"

Hajime leaned forwards, looking rather concerned with Raven's head as he pointed at himself. "…You really don't remember me?"

Raven shook her head. Well, she certainly didn't recognize Hajime, but she did recognize Hitomi. …Probably.

"I recognize Hitomi, though."

…And Hitomi seemed to be off in her own world, staring at the plaid blanket as she ate silently. Her brother proceeded to snap her out of the trance, waving his hand in front of her face. She blinked in surprise and looked around, confused.

"…Oh, Raven, you're here!"

"Er, yeah, I've been here for quite a bit…" At that, Raven shook her head and said, "I forgot! Um, my name's Raven. I've been assigned to your base!"

"We've heard all about you, kiddo! Heard you didn't graduate your first time through the Ranger School, right?"

"…"

Raven curled up into a ball and began mumbling to herself about weird things.

"…Er, I didn't mean that. Um, cheer up, okay? You're hear now, and that's what matters!"

And then Raven recovered from her state of melancholy like it had never happened. It had almost become The Melancholy of Raven [enter last name here.]

Barlow continued talking, "Once we get back to the base, we'll change you into an actual Ranger uniform! I don't think we'll have any missions for you right away, though…"

Raven nodded absentmindedly to everything he did. She probably wasn't even listening to him. She was busy eating her food.

* * *

Later on that day, as the sun was beginning to set, turning the sky various colors, everyone at the Vien Base was doing… Absolutely nothing. Well, aside from Luana and Raven, who realized that they shared a common interest in a show that was airing on TV. Which they were now currently watching, the two fixated on the TV.

No disaster could snap them out of their trance. A tornado could come and destroy the entire base, and they'd still be glued to the TV. If it had survived said imaginary tornado.

"Let's see… The only uniform we have for Raven is a boys' uniform. Hey, Raven, you don't mind wearing a boy uniform, do you?" Barlow called.

Raven shook her head. She probably didn't hear him what he'd said. She also probably didn't give a damn about a boys' uniform.

"Okay…"

"Say, Leader," Crawford said as Barlow emerged from a crowded closet of Arceus-knows-what, pulling out a Ranger uniform. Crawford randomly gave him the thumbs-up sign. "I've got an idea for a mission for Raven! Tomorrow morning, I need to deliver the Vien Tribune…"

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Barlow nodded and looked back at Raven. "Raven, your first mission is tomorrow! You'll help Crawford deliver the Vien Tribune! You excited?"

"Uh huh," Raven answered absentmindedly.

Now, Raven didn't hear a word Barlow actually said, so when she went to sleep that night and was awoken at 7 in the morning by Crawford, she couldn't understand why he was doing so.

Well, that was to be expected.


	6. Chapter 5: A Day at the Beach

Author's Notes: This chapter is waaayyy too long. At least, by my standards it is. When do the chapters of any of my stories pass the 3,000 word mark? Pshaw. By the way, according to my computer, this one contained 3,518 words. Not including this part up here, of course.

* * *

Chapter Five

And so, without eating any breakfast, Crawford and Raven left the Ranger Base to do newspaper deliveries.

It was early in the morning, and as such, not many people were outside. The two dutifully went to each house and put a paper in their mailbox. At one place, which appeared to be a farm, several pink, cow-like Pokémon sat out in a fenced area, and a few of them mooed at the two.

Raven instantly ran over to start petting them, and they mooed some more. Crawford then proceeded to drag her away from the cow Pokémon so they could continue their job.

They then traveled south of Vientown to another place Raven hadn't known existed; a place called Chicole Village. It was much smaller than Vientown, with only four houses that they had to deliver papers to. Trees lined the area, almost like it was gating it in. Trees and bushes also surrounded Vientown, and the path leading down to Chicole Village.

After they finished delivering all the papers, they headed back to Vientown, where the other Pokémon Rangers were already awake at the base. Luana had attempted to make toast for everyone, but the toast was burnt. That didn't stop any of them from eating it, though. Because, Arceus damn it, when you're hungry, you _eat_.

"Mm, the toast here tastes delicious!" Raven said happily. She wasn't even being sarcastic, which was the scariest thing about that comment.

"Really? You think so? Even after I burnt it?"

"Yeah!"

"So, Leader…" Hajime began, giving Luana and Raven an odd look before turning his attention to Barlow. "What're we gonna do today?"

"Beats me! Hahahah!"

Hajime simply shrugged at this and continued eating breakfast.

…The Vien Base is a very relaxed place…

* * *

After breakfast, Raven went back to bed to sleep some more. Since the base didn't have an extra bed for her, she had simply laid out a blanket on the floor with a pillow.

…And that seemed to be a good enough bed for her, even after the others offered to share their beds with her. But she refused. And so she slept peacefully, like a baby.

But, regardless, when she awoke, it was from Luana shaking her awake.

"What is it?" she grumbled, sitting up, still half asleep.

Luana answered energetically, "We're going to the beach!"

"Why?"

"To play, that's why!"

Good enough for her. And so, just like that, the Vien Base minus the Operator lady headed out to the beach, which actually had a name: Nabiki Beach.

It was then that Raven realized that all of the Vien Base Rangers had something called "Partner Pokémon" which, according to Crawford, is a Pokémon that bonds with you particularly better than other Pokémon when they're captured.

Barlow had a Makuhita, Crawford had a Budew (much to the amusement of Raven), Luana had a Buneary, and both Hajime and Hitomi had a Pachirisu. Elaine was the only one without a Pokémon.

But, anyways, their Pokémon also came to the beach to spend the day with them.

And Raven discovered that Hitomi became freakishly violent when the group began playing with a beach ball, with Hitomi slamming the ball hard enough that when it crashed into the sand, it sunk right into it, not even bouncing. Everyone was, luckily, smart enough to not be in the path of it.

Elaine was the only one not playing "Dangerous Volleyball" with them, opting to sit in the sand, under an umbrella, and taking apart some unknown mechanical object.

Soon enough, Raven decided to take a break from playing, and she sat down in the sand, taking a look at the shells that were spread randomly around the beach. She took a look at each of the shells carefully, like she was some kind of licensed shell identifier. When she noticed someone's shadow looming over her, she looked up.

"Um… hi," Hitomi said quietly, waving slightly at her. "Um… why are you… squinting?"

Raven had indeed been squinting at Hitomi, who was wearing a white bathing suit with a frilled skirt. Raven immediately stopped, and answered with, "No particular reason."

"Oh… Well, um… what're you doing over here?"

"Believe it or not, I'm a shell whisperer. The shells talk to me, so I thought I'd come over and listen to what they had to say."

"…Oh."

Hitomi stood there as Raven turned back to the sand, picking through it and picking out shells to look at. When she looked back up, she saw that Hitomi was watching eagerly, looking very determined to see Raven's shell whispering powers in action.

"Uh… I was joking, you know."

Hitomi looked shocked. "…Oh! You were, huh? Oops. Um… Yeah, I'm dumb… Sorry…"

"Uh, it's not a problem… But…" Raven trailed off as she spotted something nearby, stumbling around in the sand. It was a Pokémon, a little yellow mouse with pink cheeks. A Pichu. But, as she watch it, she decided that its movements were rather odd, almost like it was drunk.

She pointed at it. "Hitomi? What's up with that Pokémon?"

"Huh? Oh, that's a Pichu."

"I _know_ what it is. But what's wrong with it?"

Hitomi watched it for a bit, and then said, "…You're right. It looks like something's wrong with it… Um… but maybe it just woke up, and it's a little slow? It's nothing to worry about!" Hitomi turned around, where her brother was shouting for her to come over. "Okay, I hear you, Hajime! Sorry, I'm gonna go back over to them, 'kay?"

Giving a small wave, Hitomi ran over to join the other playing Rangers, leaving Raven alone again. She glanced back towards the Pichu, who'd stumbled around a corner and was heading… into a cave, where the ocean was rather high up the beach. This didn't prove to be a problem for the Pichu, who walked through the water and went into the cave.

Raven sighed and thought about it for a moment. She didn't take even 10 seconds to come to a decision. Standing up, Raven quickly walked over to the cave, peeking inside.

Water dripped from the ceiling, and it was dark, but she could still see where she was going. She saw other Pokémon, all of them stumbling about like the Pichu, and frowned. Raven could've gone and captured them… if she had her Styler with her. Or, hey, _if_ she had a Styler!

Barlow never gave her one. Oh well.

She wandered deeper within the cave, a humming noise beginning to sound out. The deeper in she went, the louder the noise got and the more Pokémon she saw stumbling about, but their movements were getting increasingly worse as she got closer to the noise.

Well, she didn't learn about anything like this in Ranger School. Damn.

Raven glanced around. For some reason, the Pokémon were gathering around her, but still stumbling around like drunk people. Maybe it was an optical illusion. That would explain it. Yep, yep, it's an optical illusion involving drunk Pokémon that surround you like zombies… hmm… Pretty good…

"Hey, Raven, are you in there?" someone's voice shouted out.

Raven immediately recognized the voice as Crawford's. "Um… Yeah! The Pokémon in here are acting really weird! I mean, they look like my parents on New Year's Day!"

"Alright! Wait a second, I'll come help you!"

In a matter of seconds, Crawford rushed into the cave, having mysteriously changed out of swimming trunks into his Ranger uniform. He found Raven easily, and by then the Pokémon had stumbled away from her. Running up to her, he quickly took a look around the cave.

"Whoa! It's Pokémon gone wild in here!"

"Don't make jokes at a time like this! And that wasn't even funny!… Okay, I lied. It was funny."

"I know, right?" Crawford laughed and then shook his head. "Anyways! I'm here to help!"

Taking out his Capture Styler, Crawford aimed it at one of the Pokémon and shot the disc out at it. Twirling his arm around, the capture disc encircled the Pokémon. In a matter of seconds, the white line following the disc tightened around the Pokémon, a white light washing over it for a moment.

…However, instead of calming down, the Pokémon simply ran off somewhere deeper within the cave instead of joining up with Crawford.

"…Huh? That's weird. I captured it right, didn't I…?"

Raven didn't answer his question. Instead, she made her way through the drunk Pokémon, going deeper into the cave. Crawford shrugged and followed after her. In a moment, though, he stood and looked around, a confused expression crossing his face.

"Say, do you hear that noise? It's, like, a sinister pulsing…"

"Yeah, I heard it. That's why I came in here."

"Huh? You heard it from outside? Wow, Raven, you really notice your surroundings! You're just like a… um… Rattata! Hahah!"

"…"

"Er, okay, okay. Let's go deeper into the cave. We might find the source of it."

Raven nodded, and the two continued on into the cave, moving around the occasional Pokémon. All the while the pulsing got louder. Sometimes, though, it got quieter, and the two would realize that they were getting farther away from it. So they'd have to change their path to find where the noise was getting loudest at.

And eventually, they stumbled upon it.

It was a red and silver machine that probably only came up to Raven's chest. However, around it were even more Pokémon, crowding around it like it was some kind of boss or something.

"What _is_ that red thing?" Crawford asked. "Is that what's generating this pulse? I've never seen anything like it… But I think that machine is making the Pokémon behave strangely. They all seem to be in pain."

"Really? I thought they looked like they were drunk and on speed."

Crawford didn't seem to hear what Raven said, instead continuing on with his analysis of the situation. "I think we need to stop this machine to save the Pokémon… But, then again, I don't know how you'd stop it…"

At that, Crawford took out his Capture Styler and pointed it at the machine. After pressing a button, he said, "Alright, seems like we need a Pokémon that can soak this machine to destroy it."

"…Okay. So, how're we supposed to do that, Captain Crawford?"

"Isn't it obvious? We have to find a Pokémon that can perform a Target Clear! Let's go deeper into the cave, 'kay?"

Raven simply shrugged and so, she and Crawford hurried deeper into the cave to search for a Pokémon that could help them. All while she wondered why the words target clear were capitalized.

Much to their surprise, none of the Pokémon in the following room of the cave seemed to be affected by the machine.

"Looks like these Pokémon can be captured!" Crawford stated the obvious. "Alright, I'll search the right side of the cave, and you search the left! Ready, set, go!"

And Crawford charged off to the right side of the cave to search for some Pokémans. Raven walked around the other side, although she didn't have a Capture Styler, so she couldn't really check for the right Pokémon.

_Sluuurpglurppityslurp._

"…Crawford?" Raven asked and looked around. She didn't see the Afro Man anywhere. Maybe she was simply imagining the weird noises…?

_Slurrrrrrppppp._

"…Okay, seriously, what the heck is that?" Raven grumbled. She walked around, getting closer and closer to the disgusting slurping noise.

Eventually, she stopped in front of a large boulder that was blocking the entrance to another cave room. There was a small space at the top of the blocked entrance, which was probably why Raven could hear the weird noise from beyond it.

…Although, honestly, she didn't want to know what kind of Pokémon made a noise like that.

But, regardless, it's a Pokémon Ranger's duty to protect and save Pokémon and people in need! Even if the Pokémon or person in question sounds absolutely disgusting.

However, Crawford wasn't anywhere near her, so she couldn't really ask for his help. Flexing her arms, Raven climbed up the boulder just like a monkey, and wedged herself through the small spot, and then promptly fell to the ground on the other side.

_Sluuuurrrrppp_.

…Raven was met with the sight of a somewhat large, pink, slug-like Pokémon.

…Well, in a way, it _was_ kind of cute.

"Oh, hey, little guy, were you stuck behind Mr. Mean Rock?" Raven asked, attempting to use baby talk with the Pokémon but instead sounding more like someone who was heavily sedated on something mysterious.

Raven reached out to pat its head… but instead touched something slimy, and at the same time, sticky. She resisted the urge to have a fit, and continued patting its head. The Pokémon looked delighted, and continued slurping happily.

Meanwhile, Crawford had come back to the spot he'd left her at, and couldn't figure out where she was.

"…Raven, are you here? You didn't run off on me, did you?"

"C-C-Crawford… Help… me…"

He heard Raven's pitiful cries from behind the rock. She sounded like she was in pain. "Raven, how'd you get behind that?" he shouted. Then, he suddenly realized that she might be hurt, and shouted, "Just wait a sec, I'll get you out!"

Sure enough, within a few minutes, Crawford had found a Pokémon that could destroy the rock, and said rock was destroyed, crumbling to the ground into large chunks.

"No need to fear, Crawford is here! Using his Ultra Super AFRO, Crawford will…What're you doing?"

Crawford cut off his heroic intro as he looked at Raven, who lay on the floor looking horribly pale, while the pink slug Pokémon sat on her back and made weird slurping noises. It looked particularly happy.

"Help… me…"

Crawford quickly checked the Pokémon with his Capture Styler and said, "Hey, good find, Raven! Gastrodon has the right Field Move to help us!"

Crawford pulled Raven up from the ground, Gastrodon slipping off her back and slurping around on the floor. Together, the two hurried back to the weird machine.

"Alright, Raven! Since you found Gastrodon, I say that you do the honors of destroying the machine!" Crawford announced to a still sick looking Raven.

"Ugh, fine…" Raven shuddered, and pointed at the machine. "Gastrodon, please help us out! Destroy that machine!"

Gastrodon slurped for a moment before opening its mouth and sending out a powerful jet of water. It instantly destroyed the machine, exploding for no apparent reason, and the noise stopped. The Pokémon also stopped stumbling around, and blinked in surprise, looking around in confusion as if they hadn't realized what they'd been doing.

"Yeah, we did it!" Crawford cheered. Raven clapped for no apparent reason, looking a bit bored with this whole situation. Which was when Crawford realized something: Raven never got a Capture Styler, which meant that she didn't have one here with her right now, which meant that… she managed to get Gastrodon to listen to her without capturing it?

…Maybe his awesome afro power had some kind of influence.

* * *

And so, everyone's day at the beach was cut short by the mysterious machine. Crawford ordered Raven to go back to the base with the others, where he'd wait for Almia's strongest person to come and help pick up the machine.

Raven did wonder who Almia's strongest person was. Crawford said that this person had beat Barlow in an arm-wrestling match in three seconds.

As she walked back to Vientown, she spotted someone coming towards the beach. It was a big woman, with blonde hair piled up high. Raven remembered seeing her before… what was her name again?

"Oh, you're on your way home, are you?" the woman greeted her.

"Ah… You're Big Bertha, aren't you?"

Big Bertha nodded at her. "Keep up with your Mission assignments. I don't have the faintest idea why, but your Crawford called me out."

"Oh… Oh, my God. You've gotta be… kidding me…"

Raven stepped out of the way for Big Bertha, panicking like there was no tomorrow. Big Bertha walked past Raven, yet still talked to her.

"My silly husband got all jealous saying I'm going on a date with Crawford in the cave. So, I told him, that's exactly what I'm doing! Ahahaha!"

And with that, Big Bertha walked off towards the cave, with Raven thinking on how cruel of a woman she was to do such a thing to her husband…

* * *

"Crawford contacted us and gave us a rundown of the incident. So, you two discovered a mysterious machine that makes Pokémon misbehave?"

Raven grumbled something under her breath about she being the one to discover it first, but Barlow didn't seem to hear her and continued talking.

"That's excellent work, rookie. Of course, it's Mission Clear!"

"Mission Clear? When did it turn into a mission?"

"Hahah! I think that was worthy enough for a mission!" Barlow laughed. "But anyways, let's not waste any time! Raven, I'm officially promoting your to Ranger Rank 1!"

At that, a mysterious unseen banner floated across the screen: Rank Up!

"We upgrade your Styler's functionality whenever you're promoted in Ranger Rank. Check your Styler's Glossary for details on any added features," Barlow said.

"…Barlow?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm hungry."

Barlow started laughing loudly again. "Oh, is that so? Hey, Luana, show her to the kitchen, will you?"

"Roger that, Leader!" Luana said and saluted. Grabbing onto Raven's hand, she dragged her to somewhere in the Ranger Base, leading her into a kitchen that was mysteriously there in the base. Which consisted of typical kitchen items, such as a fridge and cabinets.

Luana and Raven instantly dove for the fridge, looking through it and talking with each other. They abruptly stopped when they heard the sound of something crashing. Glancing at one another, they shrugged, and ran out of the kitchen, hurrying through the single hallway and out into the base's main area.

…Big Bertha had reached the Ranger Base and put down the weird machine, although not very gently. Then again, since it had exploded, it was already in chunks and pieces.

"Y-you brought this here by yourself?" Barlow squeaked, looking at Big Bertha fearfully. The woman hadn't even sweat a bit, despite the obvious weight of the machine. "You hefted it over one shoulder?"

"This strange machine was making the sinister pulsing noise," Crawford explained. "Pokémon near it seemed to be suffering. It was as if they were under hypnosis. Also, we tried capturing them, but they couldn't be befriended."

"Pokémon under hypnosis?" Luana asked. "And they're impossible to capture?"

"It must be, like, a zombie attack."

"Speaking of zombie attacks, Raven, I heard there's this good zombie movie on tonight. Wanna watch it with me?"

"You bet! Hooyah, let's get out the popcorn!"

Of course, no one was really listening to their idiotic babbling.

Elaine looked excited, staring at the machine, her eyes wide. If one looked at her eyes, they would see that they were sparkling… Twinkle, twinkle. Like Principal Lamont's eyes that twinkled happily behind his glasses. "Let me take it apart for analysis!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up. Not so fast. Calm down, Elaine," Barlow said, trying to calm Elaine down, waving his hands around. "We'll have Professor Hastings from the Ranger Union examine it first. Unfortunately, the Professor is off on business in the Fiore region… We'll have to wait for him to get back."

Elaine's face clouded as she stared down at the ground. "I wanted to dismantle that…" she muttered.

"Listen, Elaine," Barlow said again. "Professor Hastings will come running as soon as he's back from his business trip. I know how you feel, but we need you to wait for a while."

Elaine said nothing, but seemed to be pouting now.

"And so, with that, I think we should call it a day!" Barlow announced. "Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to…"

"Gah, I've been doing stuff all day!" Raven whined. "I wanna call it a day! I wanna!"

"Okay, then, good work today!" Barlow said and patted her on her head. "Go get some rest!"

Raven turned around, leaving the room with Luana in tow. "So, what channel is that movie on?"

"Uh, let me go check…"

"Guys, I wanna watch the movie, too!" Hitomi called out, suddenly appearing from underneath the counter, much to the surprise/horror of everyone else in the room. But no one said a word as she left the room, hurrying after Luana and Raven...


	7. Chapter 6: Playing with Fire!

Author's Notes: FIREFIREFEIRE!

* * *

Chapter Six

The next morning, Raven woke up to smell something… weird. It smelled smoky, like someone was having a barbeque.

…She loved barbeques, so naturally, she quickly got dressed and ran out in the Ranger Base's main room. "I love barbe-"

"Save the morning greetings!" Barlow bellowed, completely interrupting her awesome entrance. "There's big trouble, people!"

…Although he, Elaine, and Raven were the only people in the room.

"The Vien Forest's on fire."

"OH SHI-"

"I just received word from Crawford, who was out for a stroll."

"A stroll? A freakin' STROLL?"

"…Luana?" Barlow looked around in confusion. "What's she doing? Rather, where is she?"

Almost as if on command, the door behind Raven opened up, and Luana walked through, yawning. "Fwaahh… G'mornin'. Someone burn some toast or something? That smoky smell woke me up…"

Barlow slapped his forehead. "Luana! That burning smell's no toast. There's a fire in the Vien Forest. Snap out of that doze and get moving with Raven to the fire site! Put out that fire, Rangers!"

"F-f-fire?" Luana stammered. "We'll scramble to the forest immediately!"

"Good!" Barlow nodded. "Hajime, Hitomi, and Crawford are already out there fighting! Join up with them immediately!"

"Roger!"

And with that, Raven and Luana rushed outside, running north of Vientown. Dark smoke covered the sky, and it was even hotter than usual. Probably because of, say, the fire. People were outside their homes, standing there and looking at the burning forest. Because they lacked the brain to tell them to get their asses away from the fire.

As soon as they entered the forest, an unseen banner floated up, reading: "-Mission- Fight the Vien Forest Fire!"

Luana looked around and said, "Things appear fine here. The fire must be burning father in."

"Did you see that just now…?"

"See what?"

"The banner that said… oh, never mind. Um, right!" Raven nodded. "Let's get going!"

Luana and Raven began running through the forest, where it was getting even hotter and flames could be seen off in the distance. The ground was charred, but there were barely any flames at the area of the forest they were in. It didn't take very long before they spotted Hitomi, who was kneeling down next to a little girl.

"Hitomi!" Luana exclaimed. "What's going on, why is little Mimi here?"

Hitomi frowned, looking up at Luana and Raven. "Well… she lost her Happiny! But, Hajime is searching for the Happiny, and I'm staying here to watch after her! Ah… Crawford went on ahead, he said the fire's up north…"

"Mimi wants her Happiny!" the girl said and began tugging on Hitomi's arm. "Happiny! Happiny!"

"…I have an urge to smack this little kid around…" Raven grumbled.

Luana had begun running ahead again, and Raven hurried after her, after having resisted the urge to smack the kid. After passing over a bridge, the fire suddenly became drastically worse. Flames covered the ground, on the trees, almost everywhere. It was even harder to see through the smoke here than in the area behind them, because it hung like a smelly mist all over.

"Ugh… My face feels hot…" Luana grumbled.

"Yeah, you're right… I wonder why? Uh, shouldn't we be trying to find Crawford?"

"Right, but…" Luana shook her head. "The fire's too strong here! Let's take a different route!"

The two of them turned around and began to take a different path through the forest, with Luana leading the way. (In fact, Raven realized that she had no idea how to get around Almia at all.)

They soon spotted the Afro Man, easily recognizable by his afro, and he called out to them, "Hey, you two! Seems a perfect day for a picnic, huh?"

"Yeah, totally!" Raven answered back. "Did you bring the food?"

"Sorry, this is no time to be joking. No joke, am I glad to see you here… I've been guiding Pokémon to safety, but I can't keep up. This situation calls for the Area Move Rain Dance, which Blastoise have. Come with me, you two!"

Luana and Raven hurried after Crawford as he walked away. "Why is area move and rain dance both capitalized?" Raven asked.

No one heard her sensible question. Instead, Crawford began to talk. "I hate admitting this, but my Styler's malfunctioning from this crazy heat. That's why I need you two to go capture a Blastoise." Crawford then pointed to the left and said, "Take the path to the west. There should be one by the water. I'll stay back here and keep an eye out for Pokémon in trouble! I'm counting on you to bring back that Blastoise!"

And with that, Crawford hurried off to go search for some Pokémans to rescue.

Luana and Raven hurried off in the direction Crawford told them to go in, looking for a Blastoise.

"Luana, I just remembered something!"

"What is it?"

"I don't have my Capture Styler!"

Luana promptly tripped and fell face-down on the ground. She quickly got up, though, and asked, "What?"

"I don't have my Capture Styler! In fact, I never received one. I guess I just forgot to ask… Or rather, Barlow forgot to give me one!"

"Oh, well, don't worry! I'll catch the Blastoise!" Luana nodded. "You can watch my awesome mad skillz in action!"

"Okay!"

As they ventured through the burning forest, they soon spotted a river nearby. Which hopefully meant that a Blastoise would be nearby somewhere… As they rounded around a corner of trees, though, something shot out from behind the trees, slamming into Luana and knocking her backwards. She slammed into a tree and crumpled to the ground.

"HOLY SHIT! L-Luana!"

Luana appeared to be either a) dead or b) unconscious. Hopefully it's option b.

The thing that had knocked her back was a rather large, blue turtle Pokémon. Two large cannons peeked out of the shell that covered most of its body. It turned around to look at Raven with glaring eyes.

"Hola, señor," she stammered. "Por favor, no me dolió!"

And so, Blastoise chased her throughout the forest, Raven screaming bloody murder and the Blastoise completely intent of head butting her as hard as it could.

Eventually, Raven came up with an idea, and began running off towards the area Crawford was in. Blastoise charged after her like a madman.

"CRAWFORRRDDD! HELP MEEEE!"

Crawford looked up and screamed as he saw Raven charging towards him, and Blastoise going after her in an angry manner.

"Capture it! Capture it!"

"Right…" Crawford said, quickly recovering from his horror. He aimed his Capture Styler at the Blastoise, and shot the disc out of at it. "Capture on!"

Crawford began spinning his arm around then, and the disc twirled around Blastoise with it. The white line trailing after it tightened around Blastoise after what felt like a century later… and that was what Ranger's called "capture complete."

"Jeez, what'd you do to make it so angry?" Crawford laughed, looking back over his shoulder at where Raven sat, huddled in a ball behind him.

"He wanted to decapitate me! He was out to maul me, I'm sure!"

"Decapitate…? Oh, that's right! I should've warned you guys about that, huh? Whoops!"

"It's no 'whoops'! Now! I'm going to go get Luana!"

Just as Crawford was about to ask what happened to Luana, Raven was already running off, leaving Crawford and the Blastoise alone.

Raven soon found Luana where she left her, and Luana was still unconscious. And so, Raven attempted to carry her on her back… which was not a smart move. Raven was not one for manual labor.

Regardless, she still carried Luana, albeit slowly, back to where Crawford was. Although she was painfully slow while doing such. Because Luana was much heavier than she looked. Not that she'd tell that to her face, though.

And as she lugged Luana back there, she felt something cold and wet tap her head. She looked up.

Dark clouds could be seen gathering above the smoke, and as Raven looked up, more water began to fall. Soon enough, it was a total downpour, and the flames were getting put out from it.

"Ahahah! If I'd known it was going to rain, I would've brought an umbrella for this fire! Just joking, of course!" Crawford laughed and pumped his fists in the air. "We're getting soaked for glory! This will at least prevent the forest's Pokémon from being hurt. Good work, Luana and Raven! Soaked and dripping, it's Mission Clear!"

And yet another unseen banner came up, with the words "Mission Clear!"

And then, Crawford finally noticed that Raven was carrying Luana on her back. "Oh, hey, what happened to Luana?"

"That evil Blastoise… It killed her!"

"Uh, she's not dead," Crawford said. "Here, let's just lay her on the ground… There, nice and steady…" Raven was carefully putting Luana on the ground, but then she fell back and hit her head on the ground. Oops. Once Luana was safely lying down, Crawford said, "Okay, there's a meal for the wild Pokémon!"

Raven looked at him in horror, but he simply laughed. "Just joking, just joking! But anyways… What caused this fire? And why are there so many of the same strange machines from the Marine Cave?…I can't… I'm too burnt to think straight."

Crawford bent down and picked up Luana, holding her up over his back, like a piggy back ride. "Let's head back to the Ranger Base."

They began heading off back towards Vientown when they suddenly spotted a Mysterious Guy. Yes, so mysterious that it had to be capitalized.

"Wah!" said the Mysterious Guy. And then he bolted off somewhere.

"…Why'd he try to run?" Crawford asked. "…Something's not right here."

"No shit."

"Language, language."

Raven rolled her eyes, but they both ran after the Mysterious Guy.

…Who'd run right into a dead end of burnt remains of trees. Sure, he could've just run over or through the stubs of the trees, but… well, he lacked the brain to do so.

"Hey, look," Crawford said and looked closer at the Mysterious Guy, almost like he was a museum display. "This guy's got burns."

"No shit!"

"What'd I say about your language?" Crawford reprimanded her in a parent-like tone. "Anyways… We need to get this guy back to the Ranger Base for treatment. Let's go."

"What? We're gonna treat his burns?"

"Well, he might know something about those burned-out machines," Crawford explained. "Well, come on! We'll escort this guy to the Ranger Base, got it?"

Raven nodded and, with Raven taking the lead spot and Crawford taking the back, they began leading the Mysterious Guy back to the Ranger Base… who simply came along with them without another word.


	8. Chapter 7: Never Stopping!

Author's Notes: I have nothing else to say. Maybe I should make all the chapter titles after songs that seem to fit the chapter itself. I'm hungry.

* * *

Chapter Seven

"Crawford, Luana, Hajime, Hitomi, and Raven… Your work today was simply outstanding. Good work, Rangers. Also-! Raven, I'm promoting you. You're now officially Ranger Rank 2!"

An unseen banner came up, with the words "Rank Up!" Because it fit the situation, Raven went ahead and struck a pose without realizing she did so.

"I didn't really do anything, though," Raven explained. "Crawford was the one who captured the Blastoise, and Luana was the one who sacrificed her life to get killed by the Blastoise-"

"I'm not dead," Luana interrupted.

"And Hajime and Hitomi helped out the little girl with her Happiny. I didn't do anything, so why do I get a promotion?"

"Well, 'cause you have the lowest rank out of all of us, and I just thought I'd start promoting you so you could get up to rank with us."

"Oh. Okay."

"Weeelll," Crawford began slowly. "Raven _did_ managed to lead the Blastoise to me! I mean, she runs a lot faster than I would've expected! She could, like, rival a Doduo with her speed! Oh, yeah, by the way… Leader, you haven't given Raven a Capture Styler yet!"

"Oh, I haven't?… Whoops."

"Yeah. Whoops."

"Okay, just wait a second, and I'll go get you one!"

And so, Barlow headed off somewhere in the Ranger Base to go look for a Capture Styler for Raven. Probably heading off towards that closet where he got her uniform from. The Closet of DOOM and DESTRUCTION.

Meanwhile, the Mysterious Guy (name subject to change), was sitting on the ground. He was looking at all of them with a sad face, as if making puppy eyes at them would make them change their minds and let him go.

Within a couple of minutes, Barlow came back and handed Raven a bright, shiny, red Capture Styler.

"It's…" Raven sniffed and wiped away imaginary tears. "So beautiful!"

"Er… You're not seriously getting emotional about a Capture Styler, are you?" Hajime asked.

"I got a Capture Styler! YAAAYYY!"

…Well, someone was ecstatic about getting a Capture Styler. Raven promptly began squealing and dancing around with the Styler in her hands.

"But anyways," Barlow began and looked at the Mysterious Guy. "This guy here reeking of oil… He wouldn't stop struggling even when Elaine was nice enough to tend to his burns. I'd say the guy has something to hide. Until he decides to talk, bind him up a smidgeon on the tight side!"

Raven abruptly quit her dancing to begin clapping her hands happily. "BONDAGE!"

Hajime choked on air and tried to hide his laughter. And failed.

Crawford tied up Mysterious Guy with a rope and made him stand in the center of the Ranger Base, tied up and with everyone staring at him. Barlow stood in front of him, and started to talk.

"Hey, oil-reeking guy, how about telling us your name at least? Otherwise, you're always going to be known as the "oil-reeking guy."

Oil-Reeking Guy said nothing, just stared up at Barlow.

"Oh, I see how it is. You want someone to think up a nickname for you. I'll do the honors and think of one. Let's see… You stink like oil for some reason, so how about "Oil-Stinker-Creep?" You like it, huh?"

Crawford sighed. "Leader, you fail at comedy. It's got no spark to it at all. And it's too long."

Oil-Stinker-Creep simply started up at Barlow. Hell, had he even blinked yet…?

"I've got an idea!" Luana shouted and waved her hand around. "How about a name like 'oil'? Like… Ollie! Does that work for you, Ollie? Oh, did you catch him smile? Then, it's decided! Ollie, it is!"

"Awww, I wanted to name him something like bondage, like… Bonnie. How about Bonnie von Ollie?" Raven asked.

"What the hell…?" Barlow started and Raven shook her head.

"So, Ollie!" Luana stated, beginning to pat Ollie on his head like he was a dog. "Tell us! Are you keeping something from us?"

Ollie (name subject to change), said absolutely nothing.

"You're going to play stubborn with us, huh?" Barlow asked. "He'll feel like talking when he gets hungry. Leave him tied up… Actually, on second thought, Raven! You're permitted to beat the oil out of him, if you'd like."

"Really?"

"Yep! But anyways, right now, I'm more concerned about the citizens of Vientown. Even though the fire is out, they must be upset and worried. Raven, I have another job for you, actually. Go patrol the town."

"Huuuh? But I want beat the oil out of Ollie!"

"Nope! Go patrol!"

And so, a very disappointed Raven left the base to go patrol the town. She really did want to beat Ollie… er, beat the oil out of Ollie, that is. Within a half hour, Raven returned back to the base.

"All right! You're done patrolling, right?" Barlow asked.

Raven grumbled something back.

"What? I can't hear you!"

"I said yes, sir!"

"Good! Things are going to be hectic for a while. You should get some rest."

Raven simply shrugged and walked off to the Ranger Base's sleeping area… Where she found Luana and Hitomi already fast asleep. Man, and _she_ was the one who had to go patrol…

* * *

Soon enough, Raven woke up from her nap and came back out to Ranger Base main room.

"Feeling refreshed, are you?" Barlow laughed. "Anyways, we just received word from the Ranger Union. Professor Hastings has returned from his trip, and he's on his way here. He's coming to examine that strange machine. I want you to go out to the Vien Forest and make sure the Professor isn't lost."

Raven grumbled something under her breath but left the Ranger Base to go search for Professor Hastings. However, just as she began to leave the town, she spotted an old man walking towards her. He had a long white coat, which Raven presumed to be a lab coat by the looks of it.

"I don't know whose idea of a prank it was," the old man began, "but that silly barrier on Lookout Ridge… Who knows what they'd hoped to achieve, but a hopelessly flimsy thing it was. A chop here, a kick there, and it fell apart as if it were made of toothpicks! A spot of exercise, that was all that was!

"But that dashed Wendy, suggesting she'd fly me to Vientown on her Staraptor… She said that knowing full well how I detest the very thought of flying… Tease me, will she? But, the joke's on her! Walking is the best for health, not riding everywhere. Of course, my impatient nature means that I'm always jogging rather than walking…"

At that, the old man finally noticed that Raven was standing there. "Hmn? Who might you be? A Ranger, are you?"

"A Ranger I am!"

"Do you make a habit of eavesdropping on old folks like me?" he asked. "Oh, wait, I remember you! You came out on a 1-day Internship! Ah, so, you've graduated from the Ranger School, and you've made it as a Ranger. I'm Professor Hastings of the Ranger Union. I'm please to meet you.

"Now, come! We'll jog to the Ranger Base!"

"Er… okay…"

And so, Raven and Professor Hastings jogged back to the Ranger Base. They were quite the sight, old man and little kid, jogging together… All while Raven wondered if she'd actually met this old man on an internship thing. Had she ever done that? She didn't remember… all she really remembered was having to stay back at the school multiple times, such as during Outdoor Class, because she'd made Mr. Kincaid angry.

And now, back at the Ranger Base, Professor Hastings looked at the machine with a deathly serious face.

"Hmmhmm…" he said.

"…HmmhmmHMM?" someone else said.

He looked around to find the culprit of the other "hmm". But then he simply shrugged and looked at the machine some more.

"So, this is your strange machine… Oh, now wait…" Professor Hastings started and began tapping his chin. "I've seen something like this somewhere. It was recently, too… Uh…"

He began thinking some more and then he suddenly jumped up and shouted, "That's it! I've seen this same thing on the way over here! In Pueltown! Yes, it was in Pueltown where I saw some men carrying some machines like this. I remember them struggling with one, presumably because of its heavy weight."

"Well, we would hope that it was because of its heavy weight."

"I'd taken them to be mailboxes, but it seems I was mistaken!" Professor Hastings concluded with that and then looked around at all of them. "We'll need someone to conduct an investigation in Pueltown right away!"

"There you have it, people," Barlow said, looking back at the other Rangers. "This is an emergency mission. Luana, Hajime, Hitomi, and Raven, go investigate the strange machines in Pueltown."

"Roger!"

"Why do _I _have to do it? Are you trying to work me to death!"

"Anyways, Pueltown is right on the other side of the Vien Forest," Barlow explained. "Just inside the town, you'll find a facility for Rangers called the Ranger Depot."

"Like, Home Depot?"

"You should recharge your Stylers there. These strange machines aren't welcome in that beautiful port town. You four do something about them before it's too late."

And with that, the group of four left the Ranger Base and headed for Pueltown.


	9. Chapter 8: A Man's Job

Author's Notes: Remember how I said I might name the chapter titles after songs? Yeah? Screw it, I can't think of anything for this chapter.

I've always wanted to kick Brook in the face, however...

* * *

Chapter Eight

After multiple distractions during the walk/run there, Raven, Luana, Hajime, and Hitomi finally arrived in Pueltown.

And much to their surprise, the entire city was in chaos.

Pokémon stumbled around, reminding Raven of the drunk Pokémon she'd seen at the Marine Cave. And right in front of them was a machine that looked exactly like the one she'd seen back in the cave. A group of Pokémon surrounded the machine, stumbling about it.

Raven glanced at Hajime, who nodded back at her. Together, they both raised their arms in the air and shouted, "It's Pokémon gone wild!"

If there had been a person in their group who had common sense, Hajime and Raven would've been reprimanded for that statement. But there wasn't, so they weren't reprimanded.

"Hey there!" a man shouted, walking over to them with his hands in his pockets. "The name's Brook! I run the-"

"No time to talk!" Raven shouted as he walked over to them. She took a running start, jumped in the air, and kicked the man in the face. He fell down to the ground, unmoving. Raven whirled around to face the others. "Come on, guys, let's destroy these machines!"

Luana stared at Raven in disbelief. "…You just kicked Brook in the face."

"What?" Raven gasped, her eyes widening. She looked down at the unconscious man, and then back at Luana. "I did not, he fell!"

Needless to say, Hajime cracked up, laughing his ass off.

Luana shook her head and said, "Whatever! Raven's right, we've gotta destroy these machines! I'll take care of the ones in this area… Hitomi, you check the east area, and Hajime and Raven, go check the west area!"

"And who died and left you in charge?"

Luana stared at Raven. "Do you want to eat The Leftovers tonight?"

"Oh, god, no! I'm going, I'm sorry! Please, not The Leftovers!"

* * *

Half an hour later, all the machines around Pueltown (and there were a lot of them,) were destroyed. Luana, Raven, Hajime, and Hitomi gathered back together in front of the Ranger Depot, which was right at the entrance of the city.

"Results?" Luana asked.

"Well, what do you think?"

"I think you're going to eat The Leftovers if you keep it up."

Raven made a face, stepping back and pushing Hajime forwards instead. And so, Hajime answered Luana's question: "We destroyed all the machines in the west area of Pueltown!"

Luana nodded, glancing over at Hitomi, who was staring off at the sidewalk in a trance. "What about you, Hitomi?"

"…Huh?" Hitomi began. She looked up in surprise, glanced around a bit, and then her eyes landed on Luana. Hitomi finally seemed to realize where she was and what she'd been doing. "Oh, uh… Yeah, I destroyed the machines in the east. There were a couple in the south area, too. A lot of the machines were differently colored, and I checked them with my Styler, and we need different field moves to destroy the different colored machines."

"Hm… yeah. I had to go back to the forest and find a Pokémon to destroy the machines in this area," Luana said, apparently reporting back to herself. "But it's all good, now, 'cause we've destroyed all of them! The Pokémon are back to normal, too!"

"…Hmm…"

"What're you grumbling like an old man for, Raven?" Hajime asked. Raven elbowed him in the side.

"It's just… while Hajime and I were fighting crime like the superheroes we are, I spotted something…"

"Like…?"

Raven looked up at Luana with an extremely serious expression. "A Terribly Shifty Guy and Very Shady Guy. They were talking, and I think they mentioned something about the harbor…?"

Luana gasped. "What? Why didn't you mention that sooner?"

"Because… I didn't think it was important?"

However, by the time Raven said that, Luana was already running off through the streets of Pueltown. Hitomi and Hajime ran after her, leaving a confused Raven behind. Eventually, Raven decided that it was best to follow after them, and so she did just that.

"Guys!" Raven shouted. "Don't leave me behiiiinnnndddd!"

A couple of minutes of running, and they were in a harbor in the east of Pueltown. Boats were docked at the piers, and there were a couple of Pokémon wandering around. Boxes were everywhere, and there was a building nearby, leading out to another pier.

The four Rangers wandered around the boxes and walls around the area, and came to a stop when they heard someone's voice. Luana pushed the other three behind, and peeked out around the corner.

Standing there, dressed in black, was Terribly Shifty Guy and Very Shady Guy. There were also two others… their names? Pretty Sneaky Guy and Seriously Sketchy Guy.

"Let's take a chance and ask them what they're doing," Luana whispered back to Raven, Hajime, and Hitomi.

"Yeah, 'cause that'll work so well."

Luana elbowed Raven in the side, and then walked out from around the corner, walking up to the four men there.

"Hi there!" she said, trying to act as casual as she could, "Can I ask what you guys are doing?"

Apparently, not one of the four men had noticed Luana approaching them, and upon hearing her talk to them, screamed like a couple of little girls.

"Agh… er… Y-you vandals!" Seriously Sketchy Guy stammered.

"Damn right!" Raven shouted from where she still hid around the corner with Hajime and Hitomi.

"Ack! There's a ghost in the harbor!"

Hajime shouted, "HELL YEAH!"

"Holy crap, there's two ghosts?"

"Um…" Hitomi began unsurely, "boo?"

"HOLY SHIT, THERE'S THREE GHOSTS IN THE HARBOR!"

Hajime and Raven collapsed to the ground in laughter, slapping the pavement and laughing their asses off. Luana sighed and shook her head.

"Anyways… what're you guys doing here?"

"Er… we're Team Dim Sun!" Pretty Sneaky Guy exclaimed. He puffed up his chest proudly and continued talking, "We're a criminal syndicate with dreams of world domination!"

"But," Raven began, "like all criminal syndicates, you'll have your asses beat by the good guys, and you'll disappear, only to be started up again by an unknown person, where you'll kidnap an Aura-Sphering Riolu…"

"…What?"

"Oh, crap!" Raven smacked her forehead. "I just gave away plot spoilers! Uh… boogie woogie!"

Meanwhile, one of the Dim Sun losers stepped up and smacked Pretty Sneaky Guy upside the head. "Hey! Why'd you tell them anything, huh?"

"Oh, no! I thought I was being helpful! They took advantage of my kindness!"

Luana seemed confused as to what she should be doing. After all, she was dealing with a bunch of Dim Sun idiots who believed that there were three ghosts in the harbor that liked to blurt out plot spoilers.

"Uh…" Pretty Sneaky Guy began. "I'll make them forget what they just heard with a little unfriendly persuasion! Team Rattata… go!"

Suddenly, four purple rat Pokémon came out of nowhere and surrounded Luana, attacking her. Hajime, Hitomi, and Raven assumed that this would be a good time to come out, and so they ran out from around the corner and hurried over to Luana. The four stood back to back, and simultaneously shot out their Capture Discs, catching the Rattata in barely 20 seconds.

"Aah, it didn't work!" one of them stated the obvious. "What now?"

"Simple, we'll use a different Pokémon! Go, Toxicroak!"

And again, another Pokémon seemingly came out of nowhere; it looked like a purple frog, and its cheeks were puffing in and out as it walked over to them. Luckily (or maybe not,) there was only one of it.

With a rumbling croak, the Pokémon lunged towards the Rangers.

"Buneary! Help me out!" Luana yelled, shoving the three others back.

…It was then that Raven noticed the brown bunny Pokémon on Luana's shoulder. It hadn't been there a moment ago, had it? And, now that she looked at Hajime and Hitomi, she saw that they both had white and blue squirrel-like Pokémon.

"…Wait," Raven said, looking back and forth between them. "Where'd the Pokémon come from?"

No one answered.

Luana's Buneary jumped off her shoulder and launched itself at Toxicroak, who was busy trying to attack the Rangers. Buneary kicked its head and bounced off, twirling in the air and landing on Luana's head.

"Capture…" Luana started as she aimed the Capture Stylers at the stunned Toxicroak. She pressed a button, and the disc shot out. "…ON!"

As Luana twirled her arm around, making the disc spin around Toxicroak, the frog Pokémon quickly recovered from Buneary's attack, and brought its arm down on the white line of light that'd begun to appear. A shattering noise followed, and the disc fell to the ground, broken.

"Buneary, quick!" Luana yelled and held out her hand. "Pass me another Capture Disc!"

Buneary fumbled around with a little bag it had mysteriously been wearing, and took out a disc, handing it to Luana. Luana put the disc into the Styler, and aimed it at Toxicroak again… but much to her surprise, Toxicroak had moved, and was now right in front of her, its arm pulled back.

"LUANA!"

Toxicroak punched Luana in the stomach, and Luana flew backwards. She crashed into a wall and crumbled to the ground, unconscious. Buneary seemed unhurt from the attack, but it was panicking over Luana's unconscious body.

"Why? Why does Luana keep on getting killed?" Raven dramatically cried.

"She's not dead," Hajime answered. He looked over at Hitomi. "Hitomi! It's our turn now!"

Hitomi nodded. "Pachirisu…"

"And Pachirisu!"

"Poké Assist!"

Hitomi and Hajime's Pachirisu both jumped off their respective Ranger's shoulder, and their cheeks momentarily sparked with electricity… and both of the squirrel Pokémon let out a bolt of electricity at Toxicroak, electrocuting the Pokémon, who stood there frozen as remaining sparks jumped from its body.

"Capture… on!" Hajime and Hitomi shouted. They held out their Capture Stylers and shot out a disc, and both discs began spinning around the frozen Toxicroak. They spun around it, faster and faster, and a white line of line began to appear.

Then the line tightened around Toxicroak, washing it over with light, and Toxicroak started to move once again. It looked around at the harbor in confusion, and then hopped away, jumping up over the boxes and disappearing off to somewhere.

As these events happened, the Team Dim Sun members watched speechless. Once the line had tightened around Toxicroak, though, they started panicking. And when Toxicroak ran away, they were practically crying dramatically.

A boat horn bellowed out, getting everyone's attention.

"There's our ride! Let's ditch this place!"

And true to their word, the four Dim Sun losers ran off, down another pier, where there was a boat waiting. They hopped up onto the deck of the ship, and it pulled away from the harbor, sailing out over the ocean.

"Aw, they got away…" Hitomi grumbled.

"No need to worry! Leave it to Brook!"

The three conscious Rangers jumped in surprise and whirled around to see the man they'd ran into at the entrance of Pueltown, the one Raven had kicked, standing there.

"Oh… Brook?"

Brook didn't respond. Instead, he took off his sandals, put them in his mouth, and ran off towards the pier the boat had been at. He jumped into the water and started swimming off in the direction of the boat like a madman.

"Oookaaaayyy…" Hajime slowly said, watching Brook swim off. He turned around to face Raven, Hitomi, and the unconscious Luana. "We should get going back to Vientown and report back to Barlow. Huh? Raven, you look surprised."

"W-w-w-w-what was _that_? With the Pokémon with the cute little bags and the magic sparkling and…"

Ignoring the part about the magic sparkling, Hajime answered, "Those are our partner Pokémon, if that's what you're asking. They help us out with the Capture Discs, and they can use their Poké Assists to stun or catch the Pokémon, while we Rangers work to capture them and calm them down."

"W-wowww! That was cool! And, like, you and Hitomi totally captured the Pokémon together! Totally!"

"Well, actually, that's just something Hitomi and I can do. There's a lot of Rangers who're unable to work together like we did and simultaneously capture the Pokémon…"

"Guys…" Hitomi interrupted. She pointed at Luana. "Who's gonna carry Luana back to Vientown?"

Hajime started heroically laughing, and walked over to Luana. "Leave this to Hajime! And… hrrrggghhh…." Hajime tried to pull Luana up, but he had some trouble lifting her up. "HRRNNNNGHHH!… Man, Luana is seriously heavy! Don't tell her I said that, but man! She, like, weighs a freakin' ton!"

"Want me to help?" Raven offered.

"No…" Hajime grunted. "THIS IS A MAN'S JOB!… HRRRRNNNNGGGHGHHGH!"


	10. Chapter 9: No Title

Author's Notes: I still laugh at the scene with Big Bertha spoon feeding Ollie. Just because of the dialogue itself.

Um... yeah... a lot of things happen in this chapter, so, uh, yeah.

* * *

Chapter Nine

The sun was starting to set as Raven, Hajime, Hitomi, and the finally conscious Luana arrived back in Vientown. After giving a report to Barlow about Pueltown, the four of them went off to the bathrooms to wash, and then went to bed, oblivious to the noise of Elaine and Professor Hastings taking apart that machine.

In the morning, they woke up to find that Elaine and Professor Hastings were _still_ destroying the Gigaremo machine.

Also, Big Bertha was there, for some reason.

As Raven stared at Big Bertha, Barlow started talking, "Elaine worked all through the night to dismantle the Gigarama."

"I think you mean Gigaremo."

"What? Whatever, it doesn't matter, don't sweat the details! You have to look at the big picture." While Raven started laughing/coughing, Barlow added, "Speaking of big, Big Bertha came by with some milk pudding! Eat up, eat u-"

Apparently, that comment just set Raven, and Hajime as well, off. They started laughing hysterically, falling to the floor and laughing until tears formed in their eyes. Everyone there in the Ranger Base, Barlow, Big Bertha, Crawford, Professor Hastings, Elaine, Hitomi, Luana, and a weak looking Ollie, turned to stare at the two laughing Rangers.

Big Bertha was the first to recover from staring at Hajime and Raven. She started walking around, passing out cups of milk pudding to them. Seeing as how Raven and Hajime were too busy laughing to take the pudding, she just sat it down in front of them. By the time she reached Ollie, who they still had tied up, and was now standing on a wooden stool off to the side of the base, Barlow quickly said…

"That guys refuses to say a thing. Just stick a spoon in his mouth. That'll be plenty."

Big Bertha whirled around, her face darkening as she stared at Barlow. "Now, you hush! That's no way to treat anyone! He's the hungriest looking of everyone here."

"This fake grass is looking kinda hungry, in my opinion," Raven calmly added, and then she and Hajime started laughing again. Chances were that they were probably laughing at anything possible.

Big Bertha turned back to the tied up Ollie. "What was your name again? Ollie? Eat up, now. Here, I'll spoon it for you. See? Isn't it tasty like I told you? That's right, have some more. You don't need to chew this. Go slow, don't spill it. If it's not enough, I can get all the more you need."

"AHAHAHA, STOP! IT HURTS! AHAHAH, STOP SAYING ALL OF THAT!"

And Raven and Hajime couldn't stop laughing.

* * *

"I'M PATROLLING DA CITY, MAN," Raven said to no one in particular as she walked down a path south of Vientown.

Apparently, since everyone was being too loud for Elaine and Professor Hastings to concentrate, Barlow ordered everyone to go and patrol different parts of the area. Though he didn't specify where they should patrol, so Crawford just gave everyone locations to check.

Raven's place to check was Chicole Village. And, for some reason, as soon as Crawford announced that, Luana and Hajime tried not to snicker. Hitomi was too busy staring off somewhere to notice where Raven was patrolling.

Soon enough, Raven reached her destination… which only had four houses, and the forest surrounding the area. Could this place even be _called_ a village…?

Regardless, Raven started knocking on the house doors, checking on the people inside. The first house had a woman who just lived there by herself, the second house had a bunch of children inside, as well as a boy who was obsessed with Riolus, and was watching a cartoon starring one when Raven came to check.

When Raven reached the third house, however, she didn't even get to knock on the door before it swung open, revealing a man with brown hair that stuck up in all sorts of directions.

"Morning, Ranger kid! You here to check on us? Come in, come in!"

Not waiting for Raven's response, the man grabbed her wrist and yanked her inside, kicking the door shut and dragging Raven into a living room. He forced her to sit down on a squishy couch, and then he went and sat down in a nearby chair.

He leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees and asked in a serious voice, "So, how are my fabulous children doing?"

"Huh?"

"My children. How are they?"

"…Huh? Who are they?"

The man abruptly screamed, and Raven gave a slight jump. "GRAAAOUGHGH! You don't know who my children are? AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A RANGER? AUROAAPUAF!"

As Raven sat there, feeling extremely uncomfortable in the living room of a man who was having a screaming fit, someone else walked into the room. Raven glanced up and saw that… it was Hajime?

"Eh? Hajime, what're you doing here?"

"Pardon?"

"…No, wait…" Raven mumbled, narrowing her eyes and carefully examining the person. For one thing, this person was definitely a woman. Her voice also gave that away. But her hair was styled exactly like Hajime's, except maybe it was a little longer in the back…

"Oh, my. I see…" the woman randomly said. "You must've mistaken me for my son! You're a new Ranger, aren't you? At the Vien Base, right? Then you should know Hajime and Hitomi! By the way," she paused to hold out her hand to Raven, "I'm Hiromi, their mother."

Finally, the crazy screaming man calmed down to add, "And I'm their father, Hayate."

"Ah, it's, uh, nice to meet you…" Raven muttered, shaking Hiromi's hand. "…I'm Raven."

"You must be the new Ranger everyone's talking about, huh? Oh, how rude of me, I forgot! Would you like anything to drink? Water, tea, milk, Shellos slime…"

Ignoring the Shellos slime option, Raven answered, "…I'd like some tea, please."

As Hiromi walked off to go get tea for Raven, Hayate leaned forwards again, invading Raven's personal space. He pointed at him.

"So, can you see where those two get their good looks from?"

* * *

A long, long time later (at least to Raven, that's how it felt), and Crawford, Luana, Hajime, and Hitomi came to Chicole Village to find Raven. Somehow, they knew which house she was trapped at, and as Crawford reached out to knock on the door, it swung on open before he touched it.

"Hello, Rangers! Come on in, come on in!"

Without waiting for a response, Hiromi ushered the four Rangers into the house, and then started fretting over the scratches that were mysteriously covering Hitomi's body, and fretted over Hajime's hair, which had mysterious branches stuck in it.

Luana and Crawford headed towards the living room area, where Raven lay dead on the floor.

"Booyah, I got it right! She's dead!" Crawford cheered, and held out his hand to Luana. "You owe me twenty bucks."

"I don't have my wallet on me right now," Luana simply answered. She reached out and poked Raven with her foot. "What'd you do to her…?"

Hayate shrugged, still sitting at the seat he'd been sitting at before. "Nothing much. I just did my reenactment of Sleeping Beauty. Wanna s-"

"NO," Luana and Crawford quickly answered.

Hayate didn't even look disappointed at their quick rejection.

Raven suddenly shot up from the ground, miraculously alive again. "I HATE YOU GUYS!"

"We figured you'd have to meet these two at some point. It was a good opportunity."

Hayate suddenly gasped and dove towards a small table nearby, picking up a pen. "T-this pen-!"

"What?"

Hayate put the pen back down and resumed his usual position with his elbows on his knees. "Never mind. I thought it was something else."

No one bothered to mention that, hey, he just _said_ it was a pen, and that it _was_ a pen.

* * *

"Oh? Where's Barlow?" Raven asked as soon as they walked into the Ranger Base.

"He left while you were trapped at the House of Doom," Crawford answered. "While you were gone, we learnt a couple of things. One: Ollie finally confessed that he started the Vien Forest fire."

Ollie sat nearby, rubbing his arms, finally untied. He waved. "Hi."

"He's really a clumsy guy. He'd been asked by some people to set up those Gigaremo machines in the forest, but then he spilt some oil, and a spark plug went…"

Raven looked at Crawford. "…A spark plug? Where'd the spark plug come from? It's a foorreeesssttt."

Of course, though, no one seemed to hear Raven's question, as logical as it was.

"And then, while Elaine and Professor Hastings were still going through the Gigaremo, they found a black thing inside."

"Oh, god, not a black thing. I hope they're okay."

Crawford nodded seriously. "So Professor Hastings and Barlow headed off to the Ranger Union with the Gigaremo to do some experiments on it. Barlow wanted to bring one of us along, but he decided not to and just left. He'll be back tomorrow."

"Oh."

"Until then, I'm in charge!" Crawford added proudly. "There's a lot of storm warnings being broadcasted over the radio and T.V. for tonight, so I'm gonna go tell everyone in Vientown and Chicole Village about it! Guys, stay here."

Without another word, Crawford left the Ranger Base, leaving Raven, Hajime, Hitomi, Luana, Elaine, and Ollie behind.

10 minutes later and Crawford returned to the base. Raven noticed that it was starting to get windy outside, but Crawford's awesome afro was unaffected. It hadn't changed a bit. It was immune to the wind outside.

"And now…" Crawford said and clapped his hands together. "It's time for horror movie Friday!"

Too bad that it wasn't Friday. Or maybe it was. Raven didn't know what day of the week it was.


	11. Chapter 10: On Tuesday Night

_Author's Notes_: I used to get scared of a lot of things when I was little. Even so, I'd watch horror movies and stuff because I liked them, and then I'd remain scared for all of eternity. I haven't seen a decent scary movie for a while. Movies don't scare me anymore.

...Though, if you happen to know a good scary movie, you should tell me. :D

* * *

Chapter Ten

"Hajime, you got the popcorn?"

"Yep!"

"I've got some sodas and chips."

"Thanks, Ollie!"

"Hey, I guess Ollie does serve a purpose other than making our Ranger Base smell like oil!"

Settling down on the floor in one of many rooms in the Ranger Base, nearly everyone was in their pajamas, and Hajime was busy hugging a large bowl full of popcorn. Crawford turned off the lights, picked up a T.V. remote and aimed it at the T.V. that was mysteriously there.

"Everyone comfortable?" he asked. Everyone responded to his question with a yes. "Then, let's start!"

And so he pressed the play button.

* * *

They watched three movies that night, none of which were appropriate for children. One of them was a zombie film, starring live Pokémon and humans who had to fight against zombie Pokémon and humans, all while being trapped inside of a shopping mall. The other two, though, Raven couldn't quite understand the plot: nonetheless, they scared the hell out of her.

That was just one of many reasons that Raven had trouble going to sleep that night.

She did go to sleep a couple of times, but would end up waking up from a nightmare. Luana, Hitomi, and Elaine were fast asleep, and Raven appeared to be the only one continuously waking up.

Man. She hadn't been this scared since the day her father hid in her closet after she begged to watch a horror movie, and then when she was in bed and the lights were out, he came out of the closet and scared the hell out of her. Raven remembered balling her eyes out over that.

Raven could hear the wind blowing outside. The windows occasionally rattled, and for some reason, the sound of the wind just seemed to add to Raven's fear. What was she, 6 years old or something?

Sighing, Raven decided to just get up and go to the bathroom. Maybe that would help.

Padding down the dark hall outside of their room, Raven realized that it was a little _too_ dark… and if she stayed in the dark, that's where the monster would get to you. Only in the light were you safe… Where was the light, where was the light? Raven needed to get into someplace that had light before the monster appeared and killed her…

_Clatter, clunk…_

Raven froze, trying to listen carefully. She heard something… moving around, farther down the hallway. That direction… it was the main room of the Ranger base… Judging by the sounds, it seemed like whatever was there was clumsy… like it didn't know how to use its body after being buried under the earth for so long…

A zombie.

Now she heard a siren, like the emergency ones they used during… when did they use those sirens anyways? Either way, that siren meant… that creepy monster babies were going to come out and chase after her, and then a man with a pyramid head would come and kill her…

Raven shut her eyes and covered her ears. "Damn it, damn it, damn it…"

Footsteps.

Raven's head whirled up, and she focused onto something coming down the hall… a floating light. Footsteps + floating light = …alien?

Flattening herself against the wall and then simply deciding to curl up into a ball, Raven shut her eyes and covered her ears. She wouldn't hear anything, wouldn't see anything. She could stay like that until morning… yep. Morning. You were always safe in the morning.

Of course, covering her ears and closing her eyes didn't mean she wasn't going to feel anything either.

And then, something brushed against her foot.

Raven's scream was probably heard all over Almia.

"…And I'm deaf."

"Holy crap, Raven, what're you doing there?"

Raven finally managed to get control over herself and saw… Crawford, Hajime, and for some reason, Ollie, standing there in the hallway. Crawford had a flashlight in his hand and was pointing it at Raven.

"Ahem," Raven said, pushing herself up from the ground and coughing into her hand a few times. "Nothing really."

"Yeah, right. You just screamed like someone was trying to kill you."

"No, really. It was nothing."

"Explain that scream then."

"I was practicing my horror scream. I might become an actress in the future."

Hajime and Raven's conversation was interrupted at the sounds of more footsteps came down the hallway, where Raven had come from. Crawford pointed the flashlight in the direction of the noise, and in a second, Luana and Elaine appeared in the light.

"What was that noise just now?" Luana asked. "That scream!"

"That was Raven, scared shitless," Hajime calmly answered.

"I wasn't scared!"

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that."

"What're you guys doing out here anyway?" Raven asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

Crawford answered, "The power's out all over Vientown and Chicole Village. I think the Ranger School might have a power outage, too."

"But," Raven interrupted, "what about that siren?"

They all looked at her. "Siren?"

Raven was suddenly glad that it was dark and that they couldn't see her… because they would've seen her completely embarrassed expression. "Nothing, uh, never mind."

"Anyway, since the lights are sort of on here, at least we know the backup generator is working. It's really windy, so I'm sure there'll be lots of stuff for us to pick up tomorrow! Are you all looking forward to it?"

And Luana, Elaine, Hajime, Raven, and Ollie answered with a weak sounding, "Yay."

"By the way, where's Hitomi?" Crawford asked.

"She's still sleeping."

"My god, she slept through Raven's terror scream? I think I went deaf from that."

"Yeah, Raven, what was that about? You scared?"

"I'm not scared," Raven lied.

"OBJECTION!" Hajime shouted, jabbing a finger in Raven's face, though she couldn't see it. "You were _so_ totally scared! Admit it!"

"Not without the presence of my lawyer!"

Ollie said, "I'll be your lawyer."

"Fine!" Raven twirled around and pointed at Ollie. "Ollie's my lawyer! Okay, I was _so_ scared shitless! Now, someone keep me company while I sleep, because I'm _still_ scared shitless!"

* * *

Author's Notes: I always used to hate it when it was windy after I saw a scary movie. I don't know why. I had an overreactive imagination back then.

Though I guess I still have one now.


	12. Chapter 11: Cleaning Up

Author's Notes: ...Long time without a chapter. I've been meaning to update this, but then I'd forget, and that's why this chapter's posted more than a year after the other one.

We introduce Solana and Lunick to the Vien Base Ranger crew and have some extremely (and I mean _extremely_) random moments between Hajime and Raven.

Like, seriously. I still read it and go "What the hell was I on when I was writing this?"

* * *

Chapter Eleven

That next morning, Hajime and Raven were working together as they cleaned up the various things that'd been tossed around Vientown from the storm last night. Luana and Hitomi were checking on everyone at the Ranger School, and Elaine and Ollie were helping out people who still didn't have electricity.

"So, you get easily scared, huh?" Hajime asked as he held open a black plastic bag. Raven carried a couple of branches that were laying on the ground and shoved them in.

"No, not really. It's just that movies make me think of things."

Hajime randomly made a stupid looking face and went, "DUH-HUH-HUH."

"What's with that face? You look stupider than you already are."

He fell dramatically to the ground, clutching his chest. "…Ugh. That comment got me right here. Man, yo, that hurt."

"You like the pain, don't you? Hoho, Hajime, you're a dirty wh-"

"MOO."

Raven and Hajime went silent and stared at each other.

"…Hajime? What's with the cow noise just now?"

"I thought it was you."

"ARE YOU CALLING ME A COW?!"

"MOOOO."

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE."

"I'M NOT IN YOUR HOUSE, YO."

"MOOOOOO."

As Raven and Hajime screamed stupid things at each other, they were completely unaware of the cow Pokémon that was behind a fence, casually chewing grass and mooing. Because Raven and Hajime lacked the brains to recognize that it was there.

"I AM NOT A COW."

"I NEVER SAID YOU WERE."

"MOOOO."

As the two continued their argument, someone in a Ranger uniform walked into Vientown from the forest. Though it wasn't Luana or Hitomi, but a girl with blue hair that was pulled up into a ponytail. She spotted Hajime and Raven and just stared at them, much like everyone else in the town was doing.

"CHOPINKOPAKO!"

"FUUUNNNGAAAAHHH!"

"ARE YOU CALLING ME A FUNGUS?!"

"YOU HANG AROUND LIKE ONE.""OH NO YOU DIDN'T!"

"WHUT?"

As Raven and Hajime continued, Luana and Hitomi came into the town from the east exit, the one that led to the Ranger School. They spotted Hajime and Raven, and Luana glanced over to see that blue haired girl standing there in silence.

"Oh, Solana!" Luana shouted, getting the girl's attention. Luana was already walking over to her, and Hitomi quickly snapped out of her trance with the grass to hurry after her.

"Hi, guys," the girl, Solana, greeted them. "How're you doing?"

"Fine! How come you're here in Almia, though?"

"We heard you guys were a little short on Rangers right now, so we came here. Besides, there's nothing going on in Fiore… it was boring. It's nice to get out and go somewhere else, you know?"

"HNNNRGHHH!"

"HOOOOOOHHHHHHH!"

"We?" Luana asked. "You aren't alone?"

"Well… Lunick's with me. And I heard you guys had a new Ranger here, so… I told Lunick to go patrol the forest. So, where's the new Ranger?"

Luana looked back over her shoulder at Hajime and Raven. "…Well, I think you already know."

"…At least she's getting along with Hajime," Solana finally said after staring at them for a long, silent moment.

"Here, let's get her over here… RAVEN! HAJIME!"

Both of the Rangers abruptly stopped whatever it was they were doing and whirled around to stare at Luana, Hitomi, and Solana. Luana made a motion for them to come over, and so the two of them did.

"Hi, Solana," Hajime said upon reaching the other three. "What's up?"

"What the _hell_ were you two doing?"

"…Er… I don't know, actually."

"Anyway," Luana interrupted with a wave of her hand. "Solana, I'd like you to meet Raven! She's our newest Ranger!"

Solana grinned, holding out her hand to Raven. "It's nice to meet you, Raven! I'm Solana! I'm a Ranger from the Fiore region!"

"Oh, uh… Okay," Raven said and shook Solana's hand. "…Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, _now_ you're being all quiet and stuff," Hajime said. Raven stomped on his foot, and Hajime managed to only squeak in response. Once Raven removed her foot, Hajime stepped on hers. Much like Hajime had done, Raven merely hissed in response it.

Luana started walking back to the Ranger Base, leaving Hajime and Raven behind so they could continue to physically and silently hurt each other. Solana and Hitomi followed along. "Let's get you changed into the Almia uniform, first!" Luana said, stopping at the entrance to wait for Solana and Hitomi. She glanced over at Hajime and Raven: they were now glaring at each other, their legs entangled because they'd clearly been trying to stomp on the other's foot before said other removed their foot.

"Guys, I know you're bonding, but why don't you come inside?"

And so all duties of cleaning up the mess had disappeared.

* * *

Sometime later, Elaine and Ollie finally returned, along with another Ranger with dark blue hair, who according to Solana, was named Lunick. And that Raven should be wary of him, and if she ever felt uncomfortable around him, she could tell Solana and Solana could kill him.

"Ohoho, you're Raven, huh?" Lunick asked, leaning forwards to stare down at Raven.

"Er… Yeah…" Raven mumbled unsurely. She couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do: if Solana said to be wary of him, what was wrong with him that she should be afraid of? Not to mention whenever Raven asked the others beforehand, all they would do was laugh and look away, avoiding the question. "…I'm Raven."

Lunick stared at her for a moment, and Raven was silent. Finally, Lunick spoke.

"…Your three measurements?"

Solana screamed out some unintelligible sentence and stomped towards Lunick. "Wait a second!"

"Don't know them," Raven simply answered.

"Age?"

"That's a secret."

"Weight and height?"

"Also a secret."

"You're not from Almia or Fiore, are you?"

"That's right."

One of Lunick's eyebrows rose. "Birthday?"

One of Raven's eyebrows also rose up. "Sometime in February."

"How long have you been a Ranger?"

"Long enough."

They stared at each other for another moment before Lunick finally straightened back up. "Okay! My analysis is done… you'll end up _quite_ the lovely lady when you get older. Come back and see me then, okay?"

"What? I don't get it."

"Lunick likes women," Hajime simply answered. "He did the same thing to Luana and Hitomi when he first met them."

"…Oh. Uh…"

"I'd give you a B- in my book," Lunick grumbled, taking out a small notepad from Arceus-knows-where and scribbling down in it. "Okay, then! By the way, I'm Lunick. Nice to meet you, kiddo."

"By the way, Lunick's never given anyone a grade lower than a B," Hajime continued. "To this day, I've never seen anyone even get a C+."

"That isn't true!" Lunick started laughing loudly before abruptly stopping. "…No. Wait. You're right. Crap."

Raven was at a loss for words, glancing between Lunick and Hajime, and then over at Solana, who was shaking her head and muttering under her breath about Lunick being an idiot.

"Now! Who's in charge here, where's that meatloaf man Barlow?"

"He'd be so offended if he heard that," Raven mumbled.

"I'm in charge for the time being," Crawford answered, though Lunick was still looking around for the meatloaf man Barlow. Crawford looked over at Raven and Hajime and continued talking, "So… Raven, Hajime, did you guys finish picking everything up? I heard you guys being random from in here."

Raven and Hajime both had blank looks on their faces, and they looked at each other and said, "Oh. Oops."

* * *

Author's Notes: So Lunick's a pervert and Raven and Hajime are clinically insane. Yep, sounds about right.


	13. Chapter 12: Memories

Author's Notes: I should totally do a prequel starring Lunick. I'm just too lazy.

* * *

Chapter Twelve

After much complaining from Hajime and Raven as they, along with Solana and Hitomi, cleaned up the mess they'd left around Vientown, they returned back to the base to find that Lunick had attempted to make some unidentifiable food.

"Ew, what the hell is that?" were, predictably, the first words out of Raven's mouth upon seeing the plates of food set out on the counter where the operator woman usually stood at. The operator woman was, however, absent from her usual place. Though it wasn't like anyone would have noticed her in the first place.

"This," Lunick said, looking very, _very_ offended at Raven's comment, "is a specialty from Summerland that I learnt!"

Solana just stared at him and said, "I didn't know Summerland had specialty dishes."

"Shh! Don't tell her that!"

However, the comment had already been heard by Raven, along with every other person there in the room. _And_ by the people outside as well.

"Whatever!" Lunick snapped. "I made food, so eat it!"

"…Um…"

Lunick spun around a couple of times in search of the person who had said "um" and then realized that it was Hitomi, who'd been standing next to Raven and Solana and had therefore been in his line of sight the entire time. "What is it?!" Lunick asked. "Uh… Hitomi!"

Hitomi stared at the dishes on the counter uncertainly. She lifted a finger to point at it. "….Is that even edible?"

"Of course it is!" Lunick shouted. He scooped up one of the plates and began shoveling the food into his mouth like a very hungry Pokémon. He chewed the mysterious food loudly, making sure his mouth was wide open so everyone could see everything inside. He swallowed it. "IT'S FREAKING DELICIOUS!"

Everyone stared at Lunick, who was huffing and puffing like shoveling an entire plate of unidentifiable food into his mouth was hard work.

"I'll go get the leftover milk pudding we got from Big Bertha," Crawford finally said. He left the room and headed off to wherever the kitchen was located in the Ranger base.

Lunick shrieked, "HEY! I MADE FOOD!"

"Lunick," Solana said, "if your cooking is anything like your reading abilities, then it sucks."

Lunick angrily crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine! I'll eat all of this food by myself, then!"

And that was exactly what Lunick proceeded to do as Crawford returned with milk pudding for everyone. They all ate the pudding while Lunick noisily ate the food that Raven still couldn't identify. They made sure to take their time eating the pudding, and by the time they finished, Lunick was laying on the floor in a food-induced coma.

"Is he okay?" Ollie asked, pointing at Lunick with his spoon.

"He'll be fine," Solana answered.

"No, I mean is he okay in the head?"

"Oh." Solana ate another spoonful of pudding before answering Ollie. "In that case, no."

"When's Barlow coming back?" Hajime asked. "Wasn't he supposed to be back today?"

Crawford frowned for a moment. Eating milk pudding while Lunick ate food that looked like a monster out of a cheesy horror movie tended to give one memory loss. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention it. Barlow said he's going to stay another night at the Ranger Union since he ran into some trouble on the way back here, so he decided to just go back to the union and, uh, yeah."

"Okay."

They stood in silence for a moment before Crawford sighed and headed on over to Lunick. He bent down and picked up the unconscious boy by his arms. "Ollie, can you help me carry Luncik to the bedrooms?"

"Roger!" Ollie saluted and hurried over to help Crawford carry Lunick to the bedrooms. On their way through the automatic doors, they accidentally ran Lunick's head into the door frame, and Crawford muttered, "Don't tell him about that."

Several other slamming noises were heard as they continued through the halls. No one was concerned about it.

"By the way," Solana began, "a fair warning: stay out of the bathrooms tonight. That is all."

Neither Hajime, Hitomi, Elaine, Luana, nor Raven bothered to question what that meant.

* * *

That night, Raven woke up from her deep sleep that could withstand explosions, hearing Luana mumble something about bananas and Hitomi snore loudly like a grown man. Not bothering to question Hitomi's manly snores, Raven left her bed and exited the room.

That milk pudding was doing something funky to her digestive system. It probably had nothing to do with eating that old, crusty candy that Hajime had dared her to eat earlier.

Much to Raven's surprise, a light was on somewhere else in the base, further down the hall. If memory served her correctly, that was where the boys' bathroom was…

Ah. Now Solana's warning came to mind.

With a shrug, Raven headed to the girl's bathroom, where a piece of paper was stuck on the door. She squinted to read it: apparently, it was from Solana.

'_Lunick, don't you dare try and use the girls' bathroom, or I will personally come and kick you back to Fiore. Stick with the boys' bathroom, and don't try to use this one because you did something gross.'_

"Such a rude letter to me…" someone mumbled.

Raven gave a start and whirled around to find Lunick standing right behind her, reading the sign over her shoulder. He noticed Raven's staring. "What? What're you looking at me like that for? Did you suddenly realize how handsome I was and then you fell in love?"

"Ew, no. What're you doing here?"

"Nothing."

Raven had a feeling that Lunick was hiding something, but decided not to ask. She stepped into the bathroom, shut the door in Lunick's face, did whatever mysterious things she needed to do in there, and came back out to find that Lunick was still waiting in the hall, walking up and down in and attempting to whistle a song.

"Solana… doesn't want you to use this bathroom," Raven said.

"Huh? Whoa, you came out! You were so short and tiny that I didn't notice. That's how I was able to read the sign, by the way. Right over your head!"

Raven glared at Lunick with as much malice as she could muster, but Lunick was immune to such actions, and skipped around gleefully.

"Let's go on a nighttime patrol!" Lunick said.

"What?! I don't wanna! I wanna go to be–"

"Too bad!" Lunick laughed heroically as he grabbed Raven's wrist and charged down the hall, an action that would made Mr. Kincaid have a heart attack. Seeing as how everyone in the base was a heavy sleeper, no one woke up from his heroic laughter or thundering footsteps.

They headed out into the cool night of Vientown. Lunick skipped off to the Vien Forest, because he was sure that's where the bad guys liked to hide. Raven highly doubted this, but knew that she wasn't going to be able to escape.

They wandered through the forest, which was completely devoid of humans and Pokémon because, oh, hey, it's not like it was _the middle of the night_ or anything like that.

After a bit of meaningless wandering, they came to a stop by the river that meandered along through the forest. Lunick finally released Raven's wrist as he flopped down to the ground. Raven felt all of the blood that had been stopped in her wrist return back.

"Whew!" Lunick said. "Nothing like a nighttime run!"

Raven didn't answer him. If memory served her correctly, this was the area where she'd run into those psychotic Blastoise that murdered Luana and chased her around. Luckily, there were no Blastoise in sight, as most Pokémon were sleeping right now. Since it was _the middle of the freaking night._ Raven relaxed, but only a little bit, because she didn't know when Lunick would suddenly decide to run off somewhere with her in tow.

"So, Raven!" Lunick began. "Hajime tells me that you're from the Sinnoh region, huh?"

Raven snapped out of checking her surroundings for any Blastoise. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I am."

"How come you came here to be a Ranger?" Lunick asked. "It's pretty rare for people from those other regions to come here to be Rangers. They're usually Pokémon trainers instead, right?"

"Um, yeah," Raven said with a nod. "It's just… I came here to be a Ranger 'cause I heard about the school here that trains people to become one. But… well… the real reason I wanted to be a Ranger…"

Lunick nodded. "Go onnnnnn?"

"A couple of years ago, my mom and I were walking through the forest when we were attacked by a bunch of wild Pokémon. A Ranger came out of nowhere and saved us from them.

"Ever since then, I've always admired Pokémon Rangers. I'd get really excited whenever they had TV shows on about them. I wanted to be a Ranger so I could find the Ranger who saved us and thank him. Or her. I can't… actually remember the Ranger who saved us. I guess they'd still be back in Sinnoh, so I might not ever get the chance." Raven shrugged. "Why did you become a Ranger, Lunick?"

Lunick had been rubbing his chin thoughtfully as Raven told him the story. He mumbled something to himself. Raven didn't want to find out what he'd been mumbling about, either. He gave a start, though, when he finally noticed that Raven had asked him something. "Huh, what'd you just ask me?"

"How come you wanted to be a Ranger?"

"'Cause they get all the chicks, duh," Lunick said. Getting a look of exasperation from Raven, he laughed and waved his hand at her. "I'm kidding. Sort of. Let's see… Why I wanted to become a Ranger, huh?" Lunick started rubbing his chin again, making unattractive grunts and growls while he rubbed his imaginary beard. Raven wondered if the food from earlier had damaged his brain or if he was always like this.

"Yeah, I like women," he began slowly.

"I'd guessed."

"I like women, and people tell me I'm a total pervert, and Rangers get all the chicks," Lunick said. "But, but! I _really_ wanted to be a hero, who would save people and Pokémon from danger, so no one would end up dying or getting hurt.

"So I started to write letters to the Ringtown – that's a place in Fiore – Ranger leader, Spenser. And then, one day, he sent me a Ranger uniform and a ticket to go to Fall City."

"Seriously?" Raven asked. "He just spontaneously sent you a uniform?"

"Oh, no, wait," Lunick said. "He told me I had the qualities to become a Ranger, and _then_ he sent me the uniform. I've still got the letter, too. It's in my pocket." Lunick patted his pocket. "Okay, the other pocket." He patted the other pocket. "Ohhh, wait, in my pocket in my uniform back in Ringtown. SHIT! Oh, wait, where was I? Right, I went to Fall City, and, uhhh… shit happened, man. And then I became, uh, awesome. The end."

Raven just stared at him. "That's a really abridged version of what happened, isn't it?"

"Yeaaaah. It's been a couple of years, so my memory's pretty hazy. But it doesn't matter. You get the idea of it." Lunick sighed and waved his hand around again. "Anyways, your reason for become a Ranger's way better than my reason. I guess if I'd been saved by a Ranger, I'd have wanted to become one, too… Huh. But annnnyyyways!"

He leaned over to Raven and flicked her forehead. "I'm way more experienced than you, so I'm your senior Ranger of Awesomeness."

"What?" Raven asked, rubbing her forehead where she'd been roughly flicked. "Senior Ranger of Awesomeness? Where the hell did that crap come from?"

Lunick gasped. "Don't talk to your senior like that!"

"Can I go back to the base and sleep now? I'm getting tired."

"You can't sleep just yet, young grasshopper!" Lunick jumped up from the ground, yanking Raven up by her wrist. "We shall continue on with our quest! Let us go onwards now!"

And off they went, running through the Vien Forest all over again.

Well, Raven wasn't going to be getting any sleep anytime soon.

* * *

Author's Notes: Lunick became a Ranger to get the girls, and, uh... kittens.

So, like, I remembered one day that I hadn't finished the third Ranger game yet (I was still stuck at the beginning) so I finished it in, like, two days. I have no life. It was totally awesome, though.

Still like the second Ranger game best, though. IF ONLY I KNEW WHERE I'D LOST IT AT. I'm sure these chapters would be coming much faster if I had the damn game for inspiration.


End file.
